In the third decade of the new millennium, we have an embarrassment of riches to choose from for our movie-viewing pleasure: many of us are hooked up with one or more streaming sites that literally have hundreds of thousands of movies and TV shows at our disposal.
There is more content than you will ever conceivably be able to or want to watch in your lifetime: popular movies, indie movies, comedies, dramas, horror, family-friendly, foreign, old, new–every genre you can think of. Even if you had all the time in the world, you could not make a significant dent to the ongoing list of content. It’s a buffet table that seems to grow longer and longer every time you go back for more.
This is unfathomable, when considering that up until about a decade and a half ago, we still had to resort to traipsing down to the local video store and selecting one or two new VHS tapes or DVD’s to satisfy our immediate entertainment needs.
Although that was a paltry setup by comparison, it was certainly less overwhelming than what we have today. While I feel no pressure to watch anything on the streaming sites now, ‘cause not only do they have an immense bounty–some of them are even free now, because of course it’s come to that–it’s that it results in another twenty-first century predicament: fear of missing out (FOMO). There’s a nagging part of me that can’t help wonder if I’m missing out on some random, amazing film that’s buried on a streaming site–maybe an old gem I’d been meaning to watch or a new film that could change my life–and if it’s free: why the hell am I not taking advantage of it? And since I was old enough to remember shelling bucks, gas fare, and physical energy just to select from a fraction of films I’m privy to now, I feel like I’m betraying my old self who would’ve been ecstatic for this privilege today!
It’s too much pressure, like having a free buffet every night. How much can I keep stuffing my face before I get sick of it all and crave something simple, small, and different instead?
I know everyone loves to claim that things were “better” when they were younger, but sometimes I do miss only having a couple of new VHS tapes to watch during the weekend. It made things easier: I could know when to start and stop watching movies, and carry on with my life afterwards. Now, there are no clear boundaries between when to start and stop watching movies. It’s a new skill I’ll have to develop with this new way of obtaining movies.
Tales of an Ambivert: 