Discover Why These Young People Still Use CDs, Despite Tech Advancement

 By Safe Mary Beyiekeh

Despite the advancement in technology, and how well information can be better stored, Forbi Conrad Nsuh, a student in Buea, is still holding firm to Compact Disc, commonly known as CDs, because of its benefits.

The Resident of Campaign Street says he has no plans to stop using CDs although the technology has been replaced by better storage devices such as flash drives, hard drives, and clouds. 

CDs, to him, are safer and more secure than other storage devices and they are equally easier to access and occupy lesser space. 

He uses CDs to burn programmes without making CD ROM bootable, for example, when burning Windows software. 

As long as using CDs is no crime, he will not desist from them considering he has friends who still use them too.

CDs, though archaic as some may think, are still very important these days.Like Nsuh, Nforwa Malvin, 25, a real estate and forex trader in Buea, says he is yet to part ways with CDs. 

They do enable him to store files that cannot be edited – such as his video games and documents related to his real estate business. 

Old tech, he says, when used with new tech like smartphones, is an added advantage. 

“Some people, especially the younger ones, don’t know its use. I don’t blame them because they have quickly adopted the new technology,  I do know the use and I am comfortable with it,” he says.

CDs, less than a decade ago, were very popular in Cameroon as many people relied on them for movies and other things.

Now, they are gradually fading away, especially as most devices today do not contain CD pods. Even movies are being streamed online, and via cables, making CDs less needful.

Flashes, too, are vanishing, as information is now stored in the cloud and mobile smartphones can carry storage of over 1,000 gigabytes.

Meanwhile, the new technology has its weaknesses, too, which have kept people like Babila Bryant attached to CDs. The inhabitant of Bonduma, Buea, says he stores important documents, video games, and softwares in CDs to prevent them from being hacked. 

He says CDs cannot be hacked, unless put on a computer, The Post can not verify this claim.

However, Babila faces a challenge, because around him,  no one uses CDs again. His friends had long abandoned the old technology, but to him, “it is their problem” as he won’t quit using the CDs. 

He fears that CDs might disappear because of developments in technology.

For someone like Njobam Rosine, a student in Malingo,  external drives or memory cards are far better than CDs because they are very smaller and more portable, and can easily store large videos. “It is difficult to move around with CDs compared to flashes,” she says, adding that using CDs “is old fashioned”.

The dwindling demand of CDs has affected its market as well. Paulina Ndoh, owner of Glass Phone shop in Bonduma, Buea, continues to sell them because of some loyal customers.  

She still sells them because “people like wedding planners, DJs, and some students at the Intensive Vocational Training Center still come to order CDs” from her.

She has CDs because the cable line she uses to watch movies disappointed her. CDs, she believes, won’t lose value in the future because not everyone can afford cable lines. 

“I had a customer the previous day who told me that he is buying CDs because he cannot remove FCFA 40,000 and buy a flat-screen television,” she reveals, adding that her children watch their videos on the DVD player.

“If my DVD player wasn’t bad, I would have been watching videos instead of paying for the cable line,” she adds.

CDs are still being used, although they are quite unpopular. Its sales have been falling since 2004, Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) reports. The institution, however, registered a shocking rise in the sales of CDs in 2021, with 46.6 million CDs bought.