Member-only story
Authenticity in the Digital Age
A disappearing currency to reclaim.
I was recently laid up in bed with the flu for a whole week with very little energy, so I turned to the internet to keep me from dying of boredom during my recovery. Without many subscription services currently to my name, YouTube and Instagram were my main options.
Man, the internet sucks now. It’s somehow boring, while also being loaded with rage-bait, “hot takes,” and AI garbage.
Physical Media
For a while now, I’ve be collecting pieces of physical media again. Physical copies of books are the main thing I’ve started collecting, but copies of my favorite movies and shows as well because they can simply be deleted from streaming services on a whim. In an era when digital files could be edited, there is something reassuring about having your own copy to refer back to.
The endlessly scroll-able options that come from digital libraries also prove to be overwhelming. How many of us spend an hour scrolling before even choosing what to watch? But choosing from a library of your own pre-selected media helps remove that decision paralysis.
I don’t even like taking notes on my phone anymore. I’m carrying a physical commonplace book now and find that my mind is much less cluttered and my ideas more organized.
