I miss the days before tech took over our lives. I know I only got to experience the tail end of that time, but I keep running the thought experiment in my head.
What really started it was when streamers decided that they were just gonna remove their own movies and television shows from their platforms, and just not release completed projects. (Justice for Batgirl!) That got me interested in building up my DVD collection, and now I've got a Google Doc two pages long of suggested titles I wish I had the disposable income to purchase every single one of. A lot of them from the Criterion Collection. It also had me rediscovering network tv, and actually watching it as it airs, or at least the magic of the DVR if I missed the original airtime.
But it's also things like picking up an issue of a magazine, watching the news on tv. And when I'm finding articles online, I go directly to publication's sites and not just scrolling Twitter and looking at links the people I follow share. I'm also trying to read more books, but that's been a separate battle.
It's missing the water cooler, where no one was watching things on their own schedule and we were all participating in a lot of the same conversations about it. And just flicking channels and catching a movie or watching a marathon all day while you do chores or work. The simpler times.
So, while the studios still won't come to reality and give the WGA and SAG-AFTRA what they want and need, I will keep looking at the way I watch art and read about it.
