Are you a digital person or an analog person?

Digital versus Analog time. Have you ever thought that the world could be divided into two kinds of information? Analog is where the information is a continuous flow. Examples are the old time 33 1/3 LP records. Now we have digital music which is numerically encoded. The old time watches with a sweep hand are another example of analog time while today they are more of a fashion item and many of us wear digital watches. Even these are being replaced by those who use cell phones for their time needs. Movies are now becoming digitized where they have been primarily analog. Of course, computers are the essence of digitization.

Digitization is remaking our world. Once analog signals ruled the information world, today we are living in a digital world where information flow is ruled by numbers. Does it make any difference? Some people argue that the old type of records had better fidelity than the new digital records. Many researchers find that qualitative information (interviews, focus groups) is more useful than the quantitative information found in surveys, Gallup Polls and other rating systems. There are pro’s and con’s to each system but there is little doubt that digital signals are replacing analog signals in our emerging global interconnected marketplace.

In terms of personal time, are you a digital or an analog person? Do you see the world broken into discrete increments of time, like bytes and bits? Or, do you see the world as a continuous stream of activities and events? If you are a digital time person, how do you think your view would be changed today if you thought like an analog person? Vice versa, if you are an analog person, how do you think the world would look today to you if you thought like a digital person? Can you switch perspectives or do you find it impossible to think in such a contrary manner? How do you think your children see the world? Do they see it as a continuous flow or as a series of discrete events? Can you see any difference it makes it how we view the world?