Welcome to the Age of Digital Living

[Hooch Tan]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10928032' target='_blank'>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10928032</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"Many have begun trading in CD, DVD, and book collections for digital music, movies, and e-books. But this trend in digital technology is now influencing some to get rid of nearly all of their physical possessions - from photographs to furniture to homes altogether."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1282076515.usr20447.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>One of the benefits of the digital age, at least the state of the digital age as it is now, is that many things we deal with, from music to books, can take up an incredibly small amount of space.&nbsp; If you&nbsp;live in the cloud, you need even less physical storage.&nbsp; The BBC has posted an interesting article about the rise of the digital lifestyle.&nbsp; Instead of shelves full of books, CDs, DVDs and newspapers, we trade it all in for a lightweight computing devices and an Internet connection.&nbsp; In some ways, I can see this as a great way to declutter a household, but is it really a practical way to live?&nbsp; There are the usual concerns such as a hard drive crash but one aspect that worries me is the amount of infrastructure necessary to support this kind of lifestyle.&nbsp; Is our technological base robust enough that people can live like this effectively?&nbsp; What about a power outage?&nbsp; Or being without Internet access?&nbsp; While I live in a very technologically advanced&nbsp;household, I am always aware of the infrastructure necessary to maintain it, and try to strike a balance between utilizing the benefits of newer technologies, and having resources in case I have to go without them.&nbsp; What about you?&nbsp; Would you be willing to take the leap to go entirely digital?</p>

[Jason Dunn]

I can't help but notice that both guys are single white males. This stuff sounds good in theory, until you realize that in order to pull it off you need to also shun having a family.

I think some of the basic concepts, such as not getting too attached to your "stuff", are really good to pay attention to...

[Reid Kistler]

I can't help but notice that both guys are single white males. This stuff sounds good in theory, until you realize that in order to pull it off you need to also shun having a family.

I think some of the basic concepts, such as not getting too attached to your "stuff", are really good to pay attention to...

Yes, this seems like something young single adults can get away with for a while.

But crashing at friend's houses begs a question: what if ALL of your friends & family tried the same approach to living?

OR, looked at another way: YOU may be able to give up caring for a residence - dusting, washing dishes, mowing the lawn, shoveling snow, paying the rent, mortgage and/or taxes - but SOMEBODY has to do these things (and many others, obviously).

So, basically, you are just a free-loader. Works fine, as long as the free-loaders are a true minority....

BTW, in most climates, riding a bike (motorized or not) year round can be real uncomfortable for extended periods of time. Been there, done that.

OTOH, Jason's observation about being willing to detach ourselves from "Stuff" is good advice, even if it is hard to most of us (self included!) to do. Have a number of friends in the mission field, and while we admire their dedication and minimal possessions lifestyle, it is not something we feel particularly called to....