7/25/17 Slide Shows
Mid 60s and cloudy.
Back in the late-mid 20th century (well, what do you call the 1970s? Is it the late 20th century or the middle? Let's go with the late part of the middle) people used to get together after vacations, shut off the lights and watch slide shows of their adventures. I'm not talking about Powerpoint here, I'm talking about slide shows in their original meaning. Slides were small translucent photographs that you dropped into a projector, in the case of my family a fancy carousel slide projector and that machine shined (shone?) a light through the translucent photograph and a magnifying glass creating a giant image of the photograph on a screen or wall.
This was, I suppose, social media decades before social media and emphasis on the social because some folks would not only have their family gather round to watch the slide show but would have friends over as well. There would be cigarettes and drinks, maybe some snacks and everyone reacting to pictures in real time.
Was it better? Simpler?
No.
The great thing about the technology we carry around in our pockets today is we can be bored or annoyed by other people at our own leisure. No need to schedule any time, put on decent clothes and bring some Lambrusco and bread for the fondue pot. We can be vaguely vexed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week without other people even knowing that they're being annoying.
What a dream the future is.
Back in the late-mid 20th century (well, what do you call the 1970s? Is it the late 20th century or the middle? Let's go with the late part of the middle) people used to get together after vacations, shut off the lights and watch slide shows of their adventures. I'm not talking about Powerpoint here, I'm talking about slide shows in their original meaning. Slides were small translucent photographs that you dropped into a projector, in the case of my family a fancy carousel slide projector and that machine shined (shone?) a light through the translucent photograph and a magnifying glass creating a giant image of the photograph on a screen or wall.
This was, I suppose, social media decades before social media and emphasis on the social because some folks would not only have their family gather round to watch the slide show but would have friends over as well. There would be cigarettes and drinks, maybe some snacks and everyone reacting to pictures in real time.
Was it better? Simpler?
No.
The great thing about the technology we carry around in our pockets today is we can be bored or annoyed by other people at our own leisure. No need to schedule any time, put on decent clothes and bring some Lambrusco and bread for the fondue pot. We can be vaguely vexed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week without other people even knowing that they're being annoying.
What a dream the future is.
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