Shady,
What did you like best about having a film camera? Apart from the simplicity, I mean?
What lens(es) do you have for the Sony?
It looks like it's a fine camera to use to figure out whether you want to pursue digital photography. But then I contend that someone with time and patience and a good eye can make art with a pinhole camera, so... It's a little dated, but my go-to is about the same age.
I'm guessing that if you get into it, it will be about the lenses for you - and cycling through bodies (new technology) every 5-7 years as the bodies/tech improve.
Conceptually, your digital camera is every bit as simple as your film cameras were. There's a manual setting on your camera from which you can control the ISO setting (magic computer math there rather than chemicals), shutter speed, aperture (some of my lenses still have that feature manually while others are controlled from within the camera), and even focus, etc. And it can go from fully manual to fully automatic. I think the key to that is figuring out how many of the decisions you want to make yourself and how many that you're willing (experientially, hopefully) to let the camera make for you.
But one of the nicer things about digital cameras is that there are settings that let you fix the shutter speed (and the camera controls the ISO and aperture automatically), the aperture (blah blah blah same stuff), etc. The latter on most cameras is the AV setting and I use that one maybe 70pct of the time so I can control the depth of field.
Guess what I'm saying is the transition really only needs to be as complicated as you make it. And you've got a fine camera to start with. When you decide to upgrade, my advice would be to find a brand that you like and be loyal to it...because as I'm sure you know, it gets to be about collecting lenses pretty fast. I'm partial to Pentax (from my first K-1000), but there are other fine brands, too.
