Hello everyone. Before we get started I want to give you a brief introduction to myself, as I am Wright State University's newest Odyssey Content Creator. My name if you missed it, is Andrew Blair DeWar. I'm attending Wright State University for my undergraduate. My major is English with Creative Writing Emphasis, my minor Classical Humanities, and I am also in the process of obtaining a Technical Writing Certificate. I hope you all enjoy the content I bring you each week, and I look forward to writing for you all. Now on to what we're here for.

I guess I should start by explaining what exactly I mean by "analog world." The word analog means "of or relating to a device or process in which data is represented by physical quantities that change continuously." Our world is very much a physical one, and it is ever changing. Every second the world has progressed in some way, shape, or form, usually by the guidance of us, the people who live on it. We the people of planet earth very much represent some of the data in the world, in actuality everything on the planet is a piece of data when you relate it to the planet itself. Much like a file on your computer is made up of ones and zeroes, the planet is made up of all the things on it. So I mean an analog world in the most literal of senses, a very physical one that is ever-changing.

And I'm sure you understand exactly what I mean by "digital era" seeing as pretty much everything anymore has some form of digital representation. From music to movies, books to mail, even shopping and gambling, the digital world has become a near perfect mirror of the physical one we inhabit. Things that used to be the stuff science fiction, like video calls, small portable phones, smartwatches, wireless speakers, robots and even self-driving cars are now a reality. And the digital world has even taken over for many activities that were once only thought possible in the physical world. You can order a pizza, go grocery shopping, attend a live concert, even find a date, all thanks to the internet. And you can do all of it from the palm of your hand thanks to the invention of the smartphone Technology has advanced at such an incredible rate that we can’t even begin to fathom the possibilities of what might come next.

But this advancement comes at price, and that price is confidence and assurance. People aren’t entirely sure how things in the world fit together and work anymore. We’re in drastically new territory, and that’s altered how we approach everything from making a simple phone call to set up a doctor’s appointment or order food, to even how we handle the beginning of a relationship, first dates, and making those big leaps that ultimately define a relationship. So I’m here to try and help you navigate these treacherous waters as best I can. The following list is by no means a concrete guide and you shouldn’t try to write your life by it. It’s merely some things I’ve found have managed to help me stay in one piece when things get out of hand and I feel like I’m floundering. So, without further ado, I give you 7 Things You Need to Survive an Analog World in the Digital Era, starting with number 7:

7. Money

It kind of goes without saying, but more so than ever before, you need some kind of constant income if you’re going last very long out there in the world. Households with only one breadwinner are few and far between thanks to the combination of lowered wages and high inflation. But not just any job is going to do it, as again thanks to inflation, minimum wage in most states is nowhere near the cost of living. So you need some sort of income that equals or is better than the cost of living, which brings us to the next thing you need.

6. Specialized Training/Degree

Okay okay, I know. So far this list is seeming kind of blatantly obvious, but bear with me. The reason these two are on the list is because you really can’t get far without them anymore. While a degree isn’t necessarily needed to get a good job with nice pay and benefits, you need either a ton of experience or some specialized training in an industry if you’re going to move up pass an entry level position. Sometimes that training comes from just working at a place long enough to be considered management material. But even that isn’t enough a lot of the time anymore, after all, there are a lot of people out there seeking jobs, many of them who are more than qualified to do that very same job you want. Many companies are hiring for positions from outside their own ranks, simply because the candidates are more qualified. Having a degree or specialized training can help give you the edge you need to break into that field.

5. A Hobby

We live in a world that is basically always on anymore, which means there is never really anything one could consider free time, with businesses now open 24/7 a lot of the time and there always being some little project or chore needing your attention on those days you aren’t at work, school, or otherwise predisposed. This can lead to a feeling of being burned out, or just run ragged. Which is why it’s important to have a hobby, or preferably a few of them. It can be anything, like model painting, playing tennis, writing poetry, building computers, creating programs, reading books, playing pool, jogging, yoga, the list is endless. But hobbies help to keep you charged up and staving off the feelings of despair and defeat that come from a world that just won’t give you a break, literally or metaphorically.

4. A Sense of Self

Alright, this one is a little less physical, and not something you can exactly go out and pick up at your nearest convenience store on your next shopping trip, but it’s pretty crucial to surviving for any considerable length of time in this world. You’re bombarded by billions and billions of various forms of advertisement, rhetoric, and ideologies each day without even being aware of them. You pass someone wearing Nike shoes holding a Starbucks cup on your way to pick up some food for lunch. This pulls at your brain, nudging it towards those items each time you see them. And the less sure of yourself you are, the more susceptible to this effect you are. So spend time by yourself, however you feel is right, be it meditation, self-reflection, writing, reading or even just deep thinking while you do tedious and mindless chores like vacuuming and dusting. Really get to know yourself however you want, because knowing who you are in this world regardless of outside influence is going to help you survive the toughest days when the world tries to shove you around and tell you who you should be or need to be.

3. A Conscious Habit

This one sounds detrimental, but stay with me a moment. Not all habits are bad. In fact, save things that damage your health in some way or prevent you from functioning in the world, most habits are actually beneficial, because we humans are very much creatures of habit, even if we like to think we aren’t. Stop and think about it for a moment. You have a routine each morning usually right? Even if you’re the wake-up-five-minutes-before-you-have-to-leave-for-wherever-you-are-going type, you have the same process. These routines help keep us grounded and on course, and we feel off when we break from them. The other day I left my watch at home, which is one of the last things I put on before I leave, and I felt wrong the whole day. But these routines are a lot more unconscious, formed through the fact that we have to do them. What I’m talking about is something you choose to make a routine. This could be anything, like going to the gym x amount of times a week, reading the paper each morning, getting everyone in the office coffee once a week, going to a museum every Tuesday. Eventually these things will become an unconscious habit, a thing you do all the time, but introducing it consciously will greatly help you in the long run. Not only will you gain a new thing you do in your life that you can tell people about, like that special someone whom you just matched with and set up that first meeting over coffee with, but it will also implant in the back of your mind that when you want something, you have to put in the time and energy, as well as be patient. There are plenty of other ways to learn those traits, but adding in a new habit is one of the best ways to really understand them, because you get to see the progress you make as you go, rather than being stuck waiting for the end result, which can be discouraging.

2. A Dating Profile

Remember how I mentioned how busy the world is now, how it never turns off? And how people don’t really know how to navigate in it anymore either? Well that’s most apparent when you get to the realm of dating. Once upon a time, dating was simple and clear cut. A guy liked a girl, he asked her out, they went on a date, if it worked out, they went on more and eventually agreed they were a couple. The process generally took a good month or three. Nowadays, even getting to that first date is a slew of complex hoops and loops that it’s easy to understand why people are so hesitant to even try. So what changed? Availability mainly. We have even less free time than we used to, but now we are always connected to the world thanks to the combination of social media like Facebook and our smartphones that can receive text messages. It’s created a duality where we can easily get ahold of anyone we want to, but we don’t want to waste time on something that might not have a payoff.

Enter the dating scene, where places like OkCupid, Tinder, Bumble, and a plethora of others attempt to fill that gap. Unfortunately, it does seem to make it worse many times. Almost anyone who has ever used these methods has at least one or two stories of someone who got irate when they didn’t instantly reply, or who got stood up on the first time meeting someone they matched with and liked. Then there are the thousands of stalled conversations, the out of nowhere inappropriate remarks, the “are they just creepy and making a bad joke or a serial killer” messages, and more. But there are also victories, the first meeting that turned into a date that became a marriage, the hookup that became a relationship, and the conversation that became a close friendship. Reality is, all these problems existed before, we just never could notice them as easily. We always had the extra time to waste on someone who might not work out, or on that blind date that our coworker or friend swears is perfect for us. And if it didn’t work out or we needed time to think it over, we weren’t a few finger-strokes away from their reach. But the digital age demands we be on these sites, because while you can still meet someone the old-fashioned way, even the fat that it is called the old-fashioned way should be a dead giveaway that it doesn’t happen as often anymore. The most prevalent way people still meet is through work, but outside that, online dating has pretty much found equal footing with its comrades the bar, the park, even hanging out with friends. So pick a dating app or site and get set up on it, because while love does come to those who wait, it only does so if you’re waiting in the right place.

1. A Best Friend or Two

This one is critical. I don’t care if you know a 100 people. If you hang out every week with 40 of them. If there isn’t at least 1 person in your life that you consider your best friend, that you can talk to about anything, call on in the good times or the bad, who you truly feel close to and that you know understands you, stop reading this article and go find one immediately. You’re not going to get through this thing we call life otherwise. Because life is very mean, and it is going to hit you hard, and fast, and it will one day get the better of you. And when it does, your best friend is the one who is going to pick you up, dust you off, and help you get back in the fight. They’re the person who is going to support you when you make a big life decision that others might not agree with, but they’re also the person who is going to flat out tell you when you’re doing something dumb. When that person you matched with never shows up for that cup of coffee, they’re going to help you feel better about it by building you back up and reminding you of all the wonderful things that you are. They will share in all of your triumphs, and in all of your failures, and at each turn help you grow into the person you are meant to be.

If this is sounding a whole lot like the person people say you’re supposed to marry, good, because that’s the point. The difference between how you feel about your best friend, or friends, and the person you marry are very few and more than likely the person you marry is someone you’re going to consider one of your best friends as well. These are the people who no matter what will be there, and life simply isn’t survivable without them. Maybe you only need the one best friend, or maybe you need seven or even more, only you can decide that; the important part is that you have at least one. Because life is quite simply an infinite amount better when you have phenomenal people to share the journey with.