The Future Is Analog: How to Create a More Human World

This book started out so well. The digital world overtook us all in 2020 due to the pandemic and many discovered it wasn't the utopia we thought it would be. Overall, the book balanced personal anecdotes with conversations with “experts” in a way that made it interesting. Each chapter contained a part of the new digital-driven landscape and even provided some perspectives at the end as to how to balance or refocus the digital vs. analog. However, the whole book blew up for me in the epilogue. Sax got a little too “this all sucks. It's all because of shitty politics” that it completely ruined what was otherwise a solid premise.

I wish he had given some thought to how a lot of these technologies helped people who may not have otherwise had access— people with disabilities or other limitations. Sure, an online event may not be as all-encompassing as an in-person event but for some, it's the only option. And the ability to expand events that had previously been in person that can now provide some online content — conferences, conventions, etc. if he had talked to people who had attended his book talks after the online events, maybe he would have felt differently about “talking into the void”.

As I am still thinking about this book weeks after I read it, maybe it did what t needed to do— get me thinking and raging on both sides of the issue but still.... I was left wanting more and better from Sax.