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The lost civic life of movie rental stores

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Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#111

Post by BeetleB »

SoftTalker wrote: post #107

This seems counter to my experience and memories. I'm old enough to remember the pre-VCR days so lived through the entire rise and fall of video rental. These stores were never a community gathering place or anywhere that you really met people. You'd go in, browse for a bit, pick a movie, pay and leave. This was the same at the locally owned shops and later when Blockbuster arrived and put all the local shops out of…

Yeah - the article does over-glorify. I did frequent one rental store where I could chat with the person behind the counter about movies, but none of the others.

Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#112

Post by SoftTalker »

pstuart wrote: post #32
afavour wrote: 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.

Same, the relationships were all sort of "convenience" relationships that were dependent on the kids activities to sustain. Once the kids were older, or their interests changed, and there wasn't a scheduled game or event to bring everyone together, those relationships just evaporated.

Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#113

Post by SoftTalker »

cucumber3732842 wrote: post #81
jimbokun wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s been a disaster. It sounds good in principle. And I was very excited when discovering the Internet (Usenet) and a place to discuss all my geeky interests with many similar minded people. However, now that the Internet has so overpowered in person relationships across the board, the cost in mental health, anxiety and general unhappiness is staggering.

>It’s been a disaster. It wasn't a disaster until megaplatforms came alone.

It's always this way. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, et. al. killed the social internet, as Amazon and Walmart killed the mom-and-pop retailers, as Blockbuster killed the local video stores (but then Netflix killed Blockbuster).

Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#114

Post by SoftTalker »

cucumber3732842 wrote: post #83
bix6 wrote: post #18

More housing and fewer spaces for gathering seems to be the trend. Any open space near me became condos or protected habitat space (can’t even walk in because people trash it). There are practically no town squares. Parks are all gated by HOAs. Even the beach is encroached on by housing which means there isn’t enough parking. Where are people supposed to gather now and just enjoy the day? I see libraries, coffee shop…

>Parks are all gated by HOAs The near universal proliferation of owner's associations and management groups and whatnot is something you can lay square at the feet of the environmentalists. Some big commercial developer developing a subdivision in 1970 would've allocated a couple lots as a park owned by the city or town. I live in a neighborhood like this. Now those empty lots and the exact layout of plantings on the…

> a couple lots as a park

This was exactly the subdivision I grew up in. The "park" was just a few vacant lots in the middle of the neighborhood. That's all it was for years, eventually the city put in a shelterhouse and a couple of picnic tables, a basketball court, and a baseball diamond.

Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#116

Post by jimbokun »

triceratops wrote: post #95
xp84 wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I'm having a problem with a server and you commented "Former sysadmin was dumb and lazy, so they misconfigured it" (and you're correct) is that constructive? I think we mostly all agree that we as a society caused the problem, but we can't go back and undo that. Constructive would be coming up with ways we can, given the past did take place, improve things going forward.

I disagree with your analogy. I'm pointing out specific mistakes in the former sysadmin's misconfiguration. And also that the misconfiguration can be rolled back. We can vote for politicians that fund projects and facilities for general use and welfare. We can congregate more in the malls and community centers and bowling alleys (and churches too, if that's your style), that we still have. The loss of community isn't…

Much better!

Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#117

Post by jimbokun »

BeetleB wrote: post #109
jimbokun wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s been a disaster. It sounds good in principle. And I was very excited when discovering the Internet (Usenet) and a place to discuss all my geeky interests with many similar minded people. However, now that the Internet has so overpowered in person relationships across the board, the cost in mental health, anxiety and general unhappiness is staggering.

It's not an all-or-nothing. If you live in a society that really devalues everything you like, having that online outlet is the difference between giving up on life[1], and being passionate. Imagine being told you're broken because you like books, movies, and video games, and having almost every aspect of society reinforce that message. [1] Not in the suicide sense, but in the "Life will always suck" sense.

I was that kid.

Going to a university in a city helped a lot with that. Long conversations about comic books with friends, going to the nearby comics store on new release day with lots of other nerds, etc.

I’m no longer convinced adding the Internet to that has been a net positive. Maybe if we could have froze its growth and development at some specific point…?

Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#118

Post by jimbokun »

cucumber3732842 wrote: post #81
jimbokun wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s been a disaster. It sounds good in principle. And I was very excited when discovering the Internet (Usenet) and a place to discuss all my geeky interests with many similar minded people. However, now that the Internet has so overpowered in person relationships across the board, the cost in mental health, anxiety and general unhappiness is staggering.

>It’s been a disaster. It wasn't a disaster until megaplatforms came alone.

Yes but that’s my point. Taken as a whole it’s been a net negative.

Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#119

Post by SoftTalker »

afavour wrote: post #22
liveoneggs wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

reading and responding to those on the weekend is your choice

It isn’t, really. If it’s the expected norm in your job then there’s a real chance you’ll lose your job if you don’t do it. And particularly the kind of jobs market we see today that’s a real risk.

Actually not for most people. This is a peculiarity mostly of the tech industry. Most people don't read their work email after 5:00.

Re: The lost civic life of movie rental stores

#120

Post by ghaff »

xp84 wrote: post #102
ghaff wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>why "going to a movie" is culturally thought of as an activity one does with a companion, even a date. Much like dining out in a sit-down restaurant. Let me unpack a little bit. I very rarely go to movies and really haven't for years. So it isn't a social activity so mostly won't except for the odd shoe in IMAX. I will go see live theatre with someone or maybe a group. But am also perfectly happy to do so on my own.…

Yeah, I've reversed course on both those things now. I literally just tell my spouse, "I think tonight at 8 I'm going to go see Project Hail Mary" since I'm the only one interested in that kind of movie. And dine wherever I want when I'm alone. I think it was a lot harder when I was 18 because I saw being alone as a reflection on my worth as a person.

I was on the college's film committee and I often enjoyed hanging out with some of the other members on a weekend night especially if I didn't have anything else going on or it was later. (We also pre-screened all of our films in case there a problem with the print. So I did that too sometimes.) I was also fine, if I had a free afternoon with going to one of the discount theaters in town if there was something I wanted to see.

But, yeah, looking back I think I was a lot less inclined to just eat by myself in a restaurant--partially because I could often rope someone else in or would know people if I went into a dining hall and partly because I wasn't accustomed to just having a meal without anyone else around.

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