[oneforty4]

This is an interesting read and I find the author's observations rather relatable. Some of my friends really, really prefer streaming and that's great! But it never quite agreed with me for some of the reasons I think are given here. I often find that there's a tendency to endlessly navigate a streaming service just to find something to watch. Maybe it's an overabundance of choice or maybe its just that algorithms and infinitely scrollable pages are a dark pattern. Blu-rays, CD's, and vinyl make me more particular and emphatic with my choices. I don't put something on just to watch or have background, I usually pick something specifically because I want to watch it.

[propertymagnate]

We (my partner and I) do enjoy streaming media to a degree, but I prefer physical like yourself. I also find a kind of (likely pretentious) comfort in having control over the media, as in knowing the version I am watching hasn't been edited or changed like airplane movies used to be.

In general though I recommend separating the acts of curating media (i.e finding it and cataloguing it) and watching or consuming it. I started doing this years back when RSS was a thing and I found myself doomscrolling through hundreds of articles, not able to remember what I had read (and sincerely enjoyed) a few hours earlier. I strongly recommend it to anyone who finds themself doing something similar.

Also unrelated, but Netflix's interface actively discourages searching for additional information on their content, as normally none of the titles, cast, etc, are text and highlightable/cut and pastable.

[l8rpeace]

"I often find that there's a tendency to endlessly navigate a streaming service just to find something to watch."

I miss in person product discovery and wayfinding mechanisms, even if I know they themselves are (were?) curated (toy stores, record stores, book stores). I have diligently tried to adapt well to digital discovery, but it hasn't been the same for me. Part of it is haptic, but another part is that digital seems overwhelming. I also get discouraged when I know exactly what I want to find digitally and I'm given myriad other options except the one I want. I look forward to constant evolution in the space and I actually think that AR/VR scenarios can help there.

[ghaff]

Yeah. I'm not sure it was a "good" use of time (whatever that means) but I do miss browsing book stores and record stores--especially used ones. I still do it from time to time but, to be honest, it's mostly a "for old time's sake" sort of thing. The music is almost certainly available streaming and there's an almost infinite number of books available for purchase/download (with reviews) online as well.

[shuntress]

The "infinite browsing" still happened in physical stores though, of course, not quite to the same scale and it's a different sort of experience because you had to leave your house.

I more-or-less agree with the point in the article. Knowing you have less access to something can help make you more conscious about your decision.

[nomel]

The biggest problem with browsing at a music store is that the only way to guess what it sounded like was by looking at the song names, cover art, and which section it was in in the ridiculously imprecise categorization for the "genre" it was in. I spent way too much money on terrible music with this game.

With Spotify, I can actually find new music and artists, without going broke, and without relying on the, usually fairly limited, suggestions from others. I have zero interest in artificially limiting the music I'll be exposed to, just to make that limited, and potentially undesirable, selection seem better than it actually is. I love music. I definitely don't want to get stuck with a few albums on repeat.