Digital Nostalgia

I remember the sound of a dial-up modem. That screeching, staticky handshake between two machines—a sound that meant connection, possibility, the world entering our living room through a telephone line.

My children will never know that sound. They will never feel the particular anxiety of waiting for a webpage to load, line by line, on a monochrome monitor. They swipe. They tap. They expect immediacy.

But I wonder: what is lost when there is no waiting? What happens to desire when everything is instantly available?