Dear Netflix,
You may deliver, but you fall short in oh so many ways.
Picking a movie used to be an outing, an adventure. Sometimes it was filled with twists and turns, accidental discoveries of hidden treasures waiting on the shelves. You never knew what you’d find – something you’d never even considered, something that might just become your new favorite. It wasn’t just about the movie. It was about the journey – the exploration.
And more than that, it was often a social event. Yes, sometimes a competition. A race to get to the new releases first. Other times, it was a peer review on the spot. A stranger would see the movie in your hands and, without asking, give you their opinion. Sometimes, it was useless. But other times? It was actually helpful. They’d give you just the right nudge toward something you never would’ve chosen on your own.
And while you spit us out a list of movies you think we’ll like, half of the fun of the Blockbuster trip was finding something you never would have picked otherwise. Something outside your usual. The surprise – the serendipity. Being out from behind the glowing screen of your device, opening yourself up to the randomness of the real world.
But now? Now we’re just fed. We’re given the same things over and over again, based on what we’ve liked before. We’re in a personalized loop, our choices curated for us based on algorithms, based on patterns. And while this has made things easier, it’s also made things smaller. Tunnel vision. We’re limited to what fits inside our preferences, with everything else pushed out of sight.
Maybe it’s time to live more in the spaces where we can still be surprised. To step outside of our comfort zones, our curated feeds, and into the unpredictable, chaotic real world. Maybe the Internet isn’t broadening our horizons, but walling us off from them.
Blockbuster was like an Easter egg hunt every time we went in. You didn’t know what you were looking for – but you sure as hell knew you’d find something. That feeling? It’s gone now. So, where do we go to find what we didn’t even know we were looking for? Where do we go to find something that doesn’t fit into the matrix of our preference patterns?
Because, as wild as the Internet gets, nothing will ever surprise us the way the real world did. Not like the little surprises Blockbuster would tease us with, hidden in the aisles, wrapped up in the cellophane of mystery.
The Net is a system – a logical, ordered system – but Blockbuster? Blockbuster was a microcosm of the real world. Chaotic. Messy. Unpredictable. And yes, we all need a little more of that in our lives.
Rest in peace, Blockbuster. And yes, we still rewind…to be kind.
In loving memory,
~ The Radical Left
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What’s the last movie you found by pure accident – something totally unexpected? Drop your stories in the comments and let’s talk about the good ol’ days of movie magic.