“Remember the good old days before [insert-​​invention-​​here]?”

Truthfully that one statement irks me to the bone. And I’m compelled to take the side of the defendant in this rather unfair portrayal of technology as somehow abrading our humanity.

Having personally witnessed the global explosion of computing & consumer electronics, I think the change has been for the best. Which is why I don’t look too kindly upon people who defend increasingly archaic things. In this case, I call out the paper book.

Thinking out loud about why we collect things. Is it an evolutionary impulse to hoard resources, or is there something more to it? Can the pleasure derived from having a collection be justified quantitatively? Or is it simply an irrational indulgence, like many of Man’s other vices? Hmm, questions, questions!

Championing the oppressed, I represent the slandered defendant, the average Singaporean male. Too often criticized for qualities he has been trained to discard, this species now lives in a peculiar disillusioned limbo as an easy scapegoat for armchair critics to amuse themselves with.