My uncle's offhand comment about vinyl records made me rethink old tech

Last weekend at a family dinner in Cleveland, my uncle saw me scrolling on my phone and said, 'You know, we used to have to flip the record every 20 minutes just to hear the rest of the album.' At first I laughed it off, but then I started thinking about how much we take skipping and shuffling for granted. He told me about buying a 1979 Led Zeppelin LP and having to get up from his couch to turn it over, and how that pause made him actually listen to each side twice before moving on. Ngl, it hit different because I realized I've never fully listened to a full album without touching my screen. Has anyone else had a random family member say something that made you see everyday stuff differently?

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anthony_wells2mo ago

Gotta admit, my first thought reading this was that your uncle sounds like a wise man and I sound like a lazy mess. I have a whole shelf of vinyl records I bought for the aesthetic, but I still just stream everything on my phone because getting up to flip a record feels like a workout. Last time I tried to listen to one side, I got distracted halfway through and stared at my ceiling for 20 minutes, which honestly might be the same thing. Maybe I need to start forcing myself to sit through a full album just to see if my attention span can handle it, or if I just end up texting my cousin memes the whole time.

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