Age of the Geek

Let's (not) get physical
     It’s interesting how much physical media is ingrained in our culture. As a kid, I don’t think I was ever more excited than when I received a VHS copy of a movie I wanted. The ability to watch a movie on a whim, unbound from the schedule of broadcast television, was among the greatest powers a kid could have.
     Especially since home releases weren’t always the sure thing they are today. While the current generation enjoys regular releases of virtually every second of moving pictures that gets broadcast, back in the day there was a very real chance that if you missed something once, you risked missing it forever.
     Of course if a VHS wasn’t available, you could always make one yourself. I doubt mine was the only family that bought blank VHS tapes by the six pack so they could record their favorite shows and movies.
     Then came the DVD, and with it a new era of home media. Far cheaper to produce than a VHS cassette, the DVD market opened the floodgates. This was particularly big news for television. While only a handful of TV shows received VHS releases, ludicrously expensive ones at that, DVDs offered the opportunity for studios to sell complete series at a price people could afford to buy.
     And buy I did. I don’t recall the exact count before I sold most of my DVDs, but they were easily north of 500 various movies and TV series. Most of them I never watched more than once. Some I never even opened. I simply bought them on the off-chance that some absurd life circumstance would afford me the time and opportunity to binge watch a ridiculous number of bad horror movies.
     After investing so much in DVDs, I resisted the transition into Blu-ray for as long as I could, but the ability to watch the “Lord of the Rings” extended editions in high definition was too great to pass up. I’ve bought a few other Blu-ray movies since then, mostly because I’m a sucker for a steelbook case and they look pretty on my shelves.
     However, I think I am finally well and truly done with physical media.
     You may remember a few weeks ago when I wrote about the upcoming live action “Ghost in the Shell” movie. Writing that column inspired me to watch the original 1995 movie.
     I searched my usual streaming services to see if one offered the film and found it on YouTube.
     To my surprise, I didn’t have to resort to piracy to view the film. YouTube offered a licensed video of the movie hidden behind a paywall. For a few bucks I could rent the movie for a night. For a few bucks more I could “own” it forever.
     I guess I knew YouTube had full length movies that you could rent or buy, but it’s never been something that immediately comes to mind. The thought of exchanging money for a digital movie doesn’t particularly sit well with me. Especially since I could go to Amazon and order a Blu-ray for just a tad more and have a physical copy.
     It seems like a no-brainer. You don’t own a digital copy, you merely gain permission to use it. You can’t loan it out, or sell it, or put it on display on a shelf, and you only have access to it so long as you have access to your account. If you lose your account or Google goes out of business, then you’re out of luck.
     But then I thought about it a little bit more.
     Yes, I could order a physical copy. It would arrive in two days, I’d have to hook up the blu-ray player and put the disk in, watch the movie in the living room, and then put it on the shelf right next to all the other Blu-ray movies I don’t watch because it’s so much easier to stream something.
     At some point the pros and cons of physical media became inverted and the benefits of digital started to look a lot better. The idea of owning a physical copy of a movie doesn’t appeal nearly as much as it used to. So instead of spending nine bucks on a Blu-ray of a movie I’ll probably watch once and then allow to collect dust, I spent eight bucks on a digital license and watched the movie immediately.
     On the off chance I feel the need to watch it again, I can do so from pretty much anyplace with a wi-fi connection.
     I doubt my budding digital collection will ever grow to the extent that my DVD collection did, but that’s the beauty of it. Because I can purchase a movie at the touch of a button, I’ll never need to impulse buy a DVD just in case I have time to watch it later.
     The future is now.
     Travis Fischer is a news writer for Mid-America Publishing and kind of misses the art of a good VHS recording.