Getreal– wealldeserveto enjoythefinerthingsinlife

Kindles and music streaming is all very well but Rab thinks we’re missing a trick when we put all of our faith in cloud computing. Is it time for us to ditch digital?

Two significant things have happened. One, I’ve returned to buying CDs instead of downloading music online. Two, I’ve returned to buying real books instead of downloading them to my Kindle.

The spirit of Ned Ludd lives! Well, maybe. What lies behind such controversial developments? Nostalgia? A need for tangibility? A bit of both?

In truth, in both cases it just felt right and also, oddly enough, more convenient. I know, I know, in terms of music, Spotify is grand. It enables you to find songs or albums instantly on your computer.

But if you’re not rich and can’t afford the £9.99 monthly subscription, the free, paupers’ version is plagued with repeated advertising. And I mean “repeated”. It’s even worse than Classic FM: the same adverts over and over again, endlessly...

I don’t like music being tied to my computer either. I know you can set up hubs around the house – I’ve done all that years ago but can’t be bothered with it now. And I know you can listen to music on your mobile phone.

But here’s what I use my phone for now – phoning. I no longer take pictures on it. And I don’t download music to it. It’s a phone. When I buy a dustbin, I don’t cook my dinner in it. Tried it once – seemed to affect the flavour.

I like listening to CDs in the car and making a selection to take when I go to Skye. In the past, when I had music on my phone, I linked it to the car’s system. But it was always fiddly, and the volume was wonky.

I like reading the liner notes on CDs. The product somehow makes listening more of an event, more of a package.

The other problem with digital is you never know when you’re going to lose it all, or the service packs up, like Amazon’s Music Storage did recently.

They offered a means to let you keep your tunes, but it felt tenuous, and albums they’d given you for free just disappeared.

It was the same with Picasa’s photo library, which they scrapped in favour of an upgraded – definition: worse – one.

Before the advent of cloud computing, Apple lost a considerable number of my photographs when I tried transferring them to another machine.

Even now, cloud or no cloud, I don’t trust digital music or photos. It just feels insubstantial, which probably relates to the fact it doesn’t really exist.

Ditto Kindle books. Organising one’s virtual library was a right palaver, and it was difficult to find anything. I stuck with it for a while because I just couldn’t clutter up the hoose with more books.

But I’ve decided in principle to throw some books oot and, while I haven’t yet put this into practice, I know in my head (if not in my heart) that I can do it.

Besides, I like the feel of an individual, physical book. It tells you it contains something, whereas the Kindle is all wispy, just like digital music.

I know this’ll sound like an age thing. But many younger people buy vinyl nowadays. We all appreciate digital to a degree – but sometimes we feel a strong need to get real again.