With technology improving as it has been in recent years, it makes sense that so many activities and pastimes that were once strictly physical have been digitised – accessible through devices like laptops and desktops at first but now through smartphones, meaning that they can be carried with you wherever you go.
However, this raises an interesting question regarding what about these activities could be lost in translatio, but also about what could be gained. At a certain point, isn’t it a different activity altogether? Perhaps, but understanding your preferences can help you decide whether the technological shift is the right move for you personally, helping to keep your activities varied between the digital and physical frontiers.
Online Casinos
One of the more prominent examples comes in the form of online casinos, which have pushed the kind of games that you would typically experience at a physical casino to something more in line with video games, often referred to under the same umbrella as mobile gaming. Searching for the best online casino for real money can have you enjoying the games that you associate with regular casinos in a much more convenient fashion, letting you do so wherever you are, but it might be that what you enjoyed about physical casinos was the social aspect or the atmosphere.
While the option of live dealers can help to bring this closer in line with the original experience, focusing on what you liked about it originally can help you to figure out if this is for you or not.
Reading
The boom of devices like Kindles that can allow you to download multiple books onto a certain device designed to be read like a book makes it understandable that you can also do this on your phone as well through a myriad of dedicated apps. However, it could be what you like about reading in the first place is that it takes you away from a screen, and this is true of a Kindle as well, as it’s designed to not strain your eyes in the same way that your phone would for long periods.
Reading on your phone is certainly convenient and it can save space, but you might find that the strain associated with it might remove aspects that made the original activity so enjoyable.
Exploring
While the act of exploring hasn’t been digitised in itself, the shift from maps being physical to digital has had a huge impact on how you explore. While this does mean that reading maps itself is no longer required – thus, leading some people to potentially mourn the loss of skill – the ease of navigation might encourage you to venture off the beaten path and discover new aspects about a place you even thought you knew quite well.
However, while this makes it more difficult to get lost, making exploration both safer and easier, some people might still want to explore with the phone put away for extended periods to preserve the sense of wonder and mystery that can come from simply following your nose.