This is an interesting question. There are so many things that have gotten more accessible, easier, and more convenient since I was a kid. I can no longer imagine a world without my cell phone, for example. The number of times I use it to find businesses I’m looking for, look up directions or find hours for a store I want to visit – it’s indispensable. Likewise virtual appointments are fantastic, as is the ability to look up information I’m seeking online or find a social media account that shares content related to a new hobby I’m interested in or a skill I’m trying to learn (for example last year I taught myself to crochet entirely from YouTube tutorials, and have also found the majority of the patterns I’ve used online).
But there are some things I miss from the simpler time before we had so much at our fingertips. One in particular keeps coming up for me lately. The thing I’ve been missing most is video stores. I know this is probably going to be an unpopular opinion. In some ways it’s great having streaming services, and hundreds – if not thousands – of movies and TV shows available instantly. But I find that it’s actually harder to find things I want to watch. Netflix always seems to recommend the same things to me, and I can’t find a way to browse all their content- I only seem to be able to search when I already know what I’m looking for. And then that’s normally the thing they don’t have. I’m constantly feeling frustrated when I’m trying to find things to watch and end up just watching something I’ve already seen over again. The excitement I experienced as a kid going to the video store, browsing the shelves, and choosing one movie to take home and watch is not equaled by any of the modern entertainment options we have now. Even if the movie I picked was a dud, it was still a fun experience, and I was more likely to invest in what I was watching because I’d selected it and it was my only option. Nowadays I’ll try like five different things, not finish any of them, and end up feeling completely unsatisfied and beyond bored.
Does anyone else miss video stores? Anyone have tips on finding good stuff to watch when you don’t know what you’re looking for on streaming sites?
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I agree about video stores – and book stores. There’s a delight to physical browsing. And it can be social. Algorithms don’t replace a good discussion with a knowledgable clerk in such a store.
Exactly! Librarians are still absolutely amazing for helping find great books, especially for my kid, and I will always be a huge fan of them, but I do still miss that aspect of the stores.