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The lost civic life of movie rental stores

thereader.mitpress.mit.edu

31–40 of 285 posts

Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#31
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

reading and responding to those on the weekend is your choice

Yeah that’s a privileged point of view. You lose clients if you aren’t responsive enough.

Yeah that’s a privileged point of view. You lose your job if you aren’t responsive enough.

Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#32
post #12

The end of interest-based 3rd places is one of the many things contributing to the compartmentalization / socioeconomic bubble of modern society. People used to frequent in person things like specialty retailers, arcades, hobby clubs, religious groups, etc. When you meet real life people in person based on shared interests, you make connections across socioeconomic groups. I just don't see nearly as much of this in t…

> People with kids sometimes experience this via all the activities they take their kids to This is something welcome I didn’t expect to come from parenthood. Like many others I had thought to myself “how do you even make new friends in your thirties?!” and then once I had kids… bam. New friendship groups. For us the local park and playground are a great equalizer in terms of economic stratification. But when the wea…

I kind of experienced that but the relationships were more superficial than I'd have liked. If the "shared interest" is happy kids together it doesn't directly translate to the adults shared interests. But then again, maybe it was just me being me.

Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#33
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A bit cruel and there were probably some indie stores that were different but I remember video rentals as a place where you went in, grabbed a movie, and left.

the big city that i lived in back then only had blockbuster or hollywood so my comment was about them; besides indie video rentals didn't have those kind of fees so, i was not talking about them. besides why cruel? market dynamics change and many businesses just don't make it..

Indie rental shops in many areas did, in fact, have those kinds of fees.

Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#35

I wonder when we'll see articles on the lost civic life of social media? With increasing AI use, it is happening.

that already happened. The early days of Facebook as a user were much different than what they became later on.

early instagram vs influencer instagram ... early twitter vs whatever that shit is now ... the list is long ...

you either disappear like tumblr or you stay up long enough to turn into a dumpster fire.

Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#36
I talk about this all the time. The experience of going with your friends to Blockbuster or similar, walking around, browsing everything, deciding what you were renting then grabbing pizza made for some pretty memorable weekends.

Just having everything listed on 50 different streaming platforms isn't the same experience. There are things we really lose with efficiency gains.

Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#37
post #3

Article should be titled 'The Lost Civic Life of Mom and Pop Stores'- no kid making $4.50 an hour is cultivating a third space atmosphere at Blockbuster, whereas any Mom and Pop place can do that, no matter what they sell.

Places don't need to be curated to have value as civic spaces, although it certainly helps. Seniors hang out at the local McDonalds, car modding enthusiasts gather in strip mall parking lots, singles meet at the dog park...

Any place you have to physically go to provides a chance for social interaction. To debate your friends over what movie to pick, to comment on your neighbor's selections, to ask a clerk for a recommendation. Are these pretty slight? Sure, but life is made fuller by these minor brushes, and you never know which ones will unexpectedly bloom into something more.

Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#38

I wonder when we'll see articles on the lost civic life of social media? With increasing AI use, it is happening.

I used to do a lot of chit-chat with folks I knew on Twitter during the work day. After Musk largely torched it and a lot of people just decided they didn't need that kind of social media any longer, that channel largely went away. I use Facebook some but not the same and LinkedIn even less so.

Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#39
post #27
post #5

more romanticizing of the bygone era. late fees (due at midnight!), restocking fees, etc; some of these fees to the tune of a new dvd/vhs; good riddance.

Every era can be romanticized, and every era has its downsides. Just today, I could ramble on about the ever-increasing costs of streaming services as they reduce their available catalogs, ads forced upon users who have purchased the "ad-free" streaming bundle, UI/UX patterns designed to make cancelling difficult, things you've "purchased" no longer being available to you because the service no longer carries that st…

you are right, but that does not negate the friction that people felt at the time. my experience is with netflix, and i never found issues canceling, and as a matter of principle, i do not subscribe to services unless there are no alternatives (e.g. i pay for amz shipping, my own email domain). compare canceling a service sitting at home to driving to the video store, depositing dvd/vhs, and still having to check if they 'accidentally' overcharged. today it's so simple afaict.

Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#40
post #32
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People with kids sometimes experience this via all the activities they take their kids to This is something welcome I didn’t expect to come from parenthood. Like many others I had thought to myself “how do you even make new friends in your thirties?!” and then once I had kids… bam. New friendship groups. For us the local park and playground are a great equalizer in terms of economic stratification. But when the wea…

I kind of experienced that but the relationships were more superficial than I'd have liked. If the "shared interest" is happy kids together it doesn't directly translate to the adults shared interests. But then again, maybe it was just me being me.

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