You SHOULD EMBRACE physical media and here's why.

Take a look around yourself. Every single person owns a smartphone filled with photos and music. Everything we see and interact with is hidden within the little world our minicomputers hide within. Some might call it progress, perhaps a digital revolution. Everything we need, want or desire is hiding just a few clicks away under the tips of our fingers, displayed on a shining screen of a glass and metal box most of us couldn't imagine our lives without. We are praising the ease of access of everything. But what if I told you this entire thing is extremely harmful in the long run?

The decline of physical media

Just a few decades ago, every single person owned tons of CDs. Whether you burned them illegally at home (remember those DVD anti-piracy ads?), or if you were rich or saved up, bought them at local record or CD stores. Once you stepped inside the store, you would feel absolutely hyped to buy your favorite band's CD you saved up for, hoping it's not sold out yet. As soon as you laid your hands on it, you would feel the adrenaline rushing through your veins as you carried the little miracle of a technology towards the check out. You paid the money you carefully took aside over the last few weeks and walked out overjoyed. You would call your friends and they would ask to borrow it once you listened to it. And then you went home, blasting the shit out of your CD player, annoying every neighbour in the 30-mile radius.

To put it in a context - the pure joy of owning the CD of your favorite band was something incomparable to todays world of solely digital media. As the 2000s and especially 2010s came, online streaming platforms slowly rose, stealthily and fatally overshadowing the world of physically owning a copy of your favorite record. Cuz why would you pay so much for a crappy CD when you could enjoy so much more music for the same price? Thus came the rise of Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer and other streaming platforms.

The present day

Nowadays, I can totally see the detachment of people from the music they listen to, and overall media they consume. This absolutely killed printed magazines, for example. Nobody is simply interested in going somewhere and purchasing a tiny puzzle piece to their identity. And why? Comfort. Why should you stand up, get dressed and buy something when you can order it online, or access it online? Why should you buy music when you can pay for Spotify or Youtube Music and play anything you want? Why should you even print out your photos when you have them saved in a cloud, never to be looked at again?

Honestly, I find this behavior to be the beginning of the end. From my point of view - which I've forged over the years of observation - everything is starting to feel the same. Cheap copies. People don't feel the excitement of owning something anymore. It feels flat, detached, maybe even unreal.We are being bombarded with so much more media day by day, way more than people in the past. We get immense rushes of dopamine in seconds because we don't have to wait for anything. We instantly get gratification just like crying infants.

My advice: Take it or leave it, idc.

In this toxic world of digital overconsumption, we are being left absolutely detached from the things we consume on the daily basis. If you've read this far, chances are you care about your wellbeing and would love to do something about it. But what's my advice?

Boycott the streaming services. Really go out there and support the artist you are passionate about. FEEL the extasy of listening to an LP record while reading along the lyrics on the booklet. Burn your favorite album on a cd and play it over and over again. Print out that photo with your best friend. Buy the fashion magazine that caught your eye behind the display.

By no means am I promoting reckless buying and consumerist behavior. But if you can't really directly touch your memories, how else are you going to deeply feel the impact they had on you? And trust me, it's not as shallow and superficial as the world hidden beneath your smartphone.