Easy media access ruined entertainment for me -

[Freya]

I grew up in the early 2000s so I still remember the times before the internets and anything being on demand.

I got into anime from adult swim like a lot of people from my gen. And when I'd be able to catch the episodes from the series aired on there and could only watch one new episode a week, I really got into the plot and looked forward to each new installment. Probably because access to media for me then was scarce so when I could watch it on the TV I really enjoyed it.

I remember my uncle gifted me the first 2 seasons of Inuyasha on DVD and it was like the holy grail.

I was really into classic rock then too and would pester my mom to take me to a record store to get a new(old) album I'd really wanted to listen to. I still listen to the radio and somehow I enjoy a song more when it comes on randomly on the radio as opposed to just looking it up on youtube.

I have a formidable steam library that is 100x what made me happy getting pokemon ruby as a kid and yet it doesn't do much for me

Now that I have access to all of that instantly for free, I just don't care about it anymore.

Am I just retarded/getting older and don't enjoy things as much? I feel like there's something behind this idea but I can't enunciate it right.

 

[Rusty Crab]

A lot of the "joy" in getting things is the journey to obtain them. That can be something really small like having the dedication to tune into a show at a certain time, or getting lucky enough to have your favorite song come on. So yes, it does take away a bit of that.

Games, I think, are a bit of a different issue since they're designed to make rewards difficult to obtain within them. I think as you get older, you have the opportunity to experience actual life achievements. After that, the fake achievements that games provide don't really have the same impact anymore.

 

[Megaroad 2012]

Internet spoiled the fun of life.

 

[Freya]

http://mother12.earthboundcentral.com

2. Following that same thought, it's important to realize this game was released in 1989. Of course it's going to be tough to get into if you use a 2011 (or whatever year this is) mindset. So do this:

Imagine you're a kid in 1989. You have an 8-bit NES with a couple games. On a Friday afternoon on the way home from school, you stop by a video store and rent a random game called "MOTHER". Usually when you rented games back then it was always a very hit-or-miss thing, so whatever game you got, you were stuck with it for the whole weekend. Try playing this game with that mindset - that you're a kid in the late 80s with a weekend ahead of you to play this game. Do that, and you might start to appreciate it in new ways!

 

[The Last Stand]

Now that I have access to all of that instantly for free, I just don't care about it anymore.

Am I just retarded/getting older and don't enjoy things as much? I feel like there's something behind this idea but I can't enunciate it right.

I think it's more HOW to obtain such novelties.

As you said, when you were a kid, you'd have a weekend to rent a game and play it. After that, you would have to return it. And either play it at a friend's house or wait for a birthday/holiday/allowance to get what you want.

You'd appreciate what you had then because you did not have the means to just get what you want whenever. Now, as an adult, you have more free will and ability to get what you want. New game comes out, go to the store and pick it up. Hell, you may not even have to leave the house. Just download it from your system.

Games, I think, are a bit of a different issue since they're designed to make rewards difficult to obtain within them. I think as you get older, you have the opportunity to experience actual life achievements. After that, the fake achievements that games provide don't really have the same impact anymore.

Basically this. Going on vacation, getting a promotion, a pay raise, a spouse, has a tangible feeling compared to just playing games.

 

[I Love Beef]

I grew up in the early 2000s so I still remember the times before the internets and anything being on demand.

I got into anime from adult swim like a lot of people from my gen. And when I'd be able to catch the episodes from the series aired on there and could only watch one new episode a week, I really got into the plot and looked forward to each new installment. Probably because access to media for me then was scarce so when I could watch it on the TV I really enjoyed it.

I remember my uncle gifted me the first 2 seasons of Inuyasha on DVD and it was like the holy grail.

I was really into classic rock then too and would pester my mom to take me to a record store to get a new(old) album I'd really wanted to listen to. I still listen to the radio and somehow I enjoy a song more when it comes on randomly on the radio as opposed to just looking it up on youtube.

Now that I have access to all of that instantly for free, I just don't care about it anymore.

Am I just retarded/getting older and don't enjoy things as much? I feel like there's something behind this idea but I can't enunciate it right.

Yes, you're getting older, no you're not insane.

Spoiler: let's level here

I too am from the same era and a similar background you are at. While I wasn't exactly poor, my family was "pottery barn poor" and my parents were workacholics for everything better and worse, but all good in the long run. I have a lot of siblings and let's just say that we got into the emulation and bit torrenting game on the jet set before it got popular/wide spread.

Anime wise, I never got to own anything physical, and even when I did, my limited allowance only got me able to buy starting DVDs of series I never got to finish when I was younger. Anime for me is a reoccurring instance in my life; I practically grew up with it since I was out of diapers thanks to mom and pop store anime stores of a certain state and I was constantly exposed to it by video games and the occasional instance of VHS tape showings and local provider afternoon slots around the country before WB Kids and Cartoon Network caught on and kickstarted the 2000s anime boom, and the internet helped to host fan made websites to connect everyone together. Sure, you see it everywhere nowadays, but back then, it was the proverbial rare white rabbit for nerds like me. Long story short, anime still is that special something in my life as well.

All of this boils down to that no, you're not crazy; all trends and eras and glories come and go, every decade and every year. It's absolutely hard for me to believe that it was only 10-20 years ago that the turn of the millenium US anime and video game boom happened, but things change. The whole gist of this is what you make of it. I know I bring these fuckers and this topic up a lot, but I bitch on and on about them because "flowers don't come from flowers; fireworks don't come from fireworks; flowers come from dirt, fireworks come from the earth". Anime oldfags, and I mean like the rotten shitty weeaboo forum and taste elitists from Anime News Network and THEM Anime Reviews, are fucking losers, because they are a bunch of entitled consumers who now amount to little in life but talking heads, and even then, they don't even get to talk, but type on Twitter. I go off and on about making anime shit because honestly, that's the natural fucking course of cultural exchange and international discourse in our globally connected world; inspiration should get you to get off your ass and make art and express yourself and shit. Again, you'd think the whole anime boom of the 2000s would do something like this, but no, it's been pretty fizzle out about every decade. I also might get pretty on edge here, but if you think you're spoiled, don't worry. All of those fuckfaces are so spoiled to shit that they think that Japan owes them for their anime. I'm glad I was always hungry for anime, I was always grateful for the era of anime I was introduced to, and that I wanted to go the distance and study actual cultural intricacies and narratives and themes of anime than to armchair expert shit like the lot of Breadtube and other grifter parasites.

All in all though, the most important thing is to know what you like in this world and either accept the fact that you can either let life go by and go on and go for the ride, or you can find a way to do something actually constructive and of merit to change shit and keep yourself relevant. I still like the things I did when I was younger, warts and all. Nostalgia is a honey trap though. You still need to keep moving in life and accept things change. I'm getting deep here, but it eventually all snowballs into something about your side of the human condition. "You got to walk your own path and face your destiny" and shit.

On another side of things, it always feels good to purchase and own things you want. About as much as it's nice to have around digital stuff, you do want to surround yourself with stuff you like and are enthusiastic/passionate about.

Games, I think, are a bit of a different issue since they're designed to make rewards difficult to obtain within them. I think as you get older, you have the opportunity to experience actual life achievements. After that, the fake achievements that games provide don't really have the same impact anymore.

This. Outside of the joy and feeling of reward of actually achieving something in life, there are only so many video games you can play/shows you can watch until you realize your limit, be it what you enjoy and/or wanting to do something with your life.

 

[Exorbital Columnations]

Go outside?

 

[Freya]

Go outside?

I do! I'm a rural girl and this persists anyway

 

[Dom Cruise]

You have a point, when content is more curated you definitely would have tried at times something you may not have tried otherwise that you wound up really loving.

I discovered my all time favorite anime because it was simply being aired on TV, and part of why it's so special to me is it's because it was the first anime I started buying on DVD as the volumes were coming out over the span of a little over half a year, the anticipation of each new volume really made it special.

There's also a special magic to that experience I'm sure we've all had that is probably gone now (or close to it) of finding something weird when channel surfing late at night on TV.

The anime that aired on Toonami and later Adult Swim, as well as what aired on Tech TV and later G4 were huge taste makers for me that I'm very lucky to have experienced, this goes beyond anime of course and includes everything from watching Spielberg movies on TNT and TBS as a kid to discovering laughable 1980s B movies on the movie channels as a teen in the 2000s, us older generations are definitely lucky to have had our tastes guided in some way versus younger generations having to choose from a sea of content with no prior tastes to help navigate it and know what they like.

On the flipside to that streaming does have it's pros, I've watched a lot of movies lately, movies I probably would not have rented on disc, let alone buy them on disc and some of these movies have blown me away, but I'm lucky to already have some idea of what I want to see, I'm glad I'm not growing up in this age otherwise I'm sure I'd easily suffer choice paralysis.

 

[Lemmingwise]

I have to lock my phone away,or I can't read books.

 

[UnsufficentBoobage]

I tell people watching things on TV feels "truer", and they go blahblahblah whoevenwatchesTVanymore

 

[Rusty Crab]

I tell people watching things on TV feels "truer", and they go blahblahblah whoevenwatchesTVanymore

Maybe, but TV has a lot more problems that come with it. That primarily being that 98.5% of stuff you're paying for, you will never watch. Also, I do not miss 5 minute ad blocks between 10 minutes of show. That was absolutely disgusting.

 

[ArnoldPalmer]

This is why I moved away from entertainment, and towards fixing all of my broken mechanical contraptions and electronic hardware. It really is all about the journey, not the destination. I enjoy waiting for car parts to come in the mail, unpacking them, painting them if they're visible from the exterior, and slapping them in. It's that personal touch that makes it worthwhile. I've also always been a physical media enjoyer for this reason, too. I like having the object I can stick into another object and make the shapes and colors move on my expensive glass sheet.

I only have Prime Video for Star Trek, because I can't figure out what the best quality releases are supposed to be.

Incidentally, this is why I am still a raging internet pirate. I enjoy piracy more than I actually consume the thing I'm pirating. Stick it to the man, you'll like it better.

 

[Rusty Crab]

This is why I moved away from entertainment, and towards fixing all of my broken mechanical contraptions and electronic hardware. It really is all about the journey, not the destination. I enjoy waiting for car parts to come in the mail, unpacking them, painting them if they're visible from the exterior, and slapping them in. It's that personal touch that makes it worthwhile. I've also always been a physical media enjoyer for this reason, too. I like having the object I can stick into another object and make the shapes and colors move on my expensive glass sheet.

I only have Prime Video for Star Trek, because I can't figure out what the best quality releases are supposed to be.

Incidentally, this is why I am still a raging internet pirate. I enjoy piracy more than I actually consume the thing I'm pirating. Stick it to the man, you'll like it better.

Personally, I pirate because the state of entertainment industry and the people in it are extremely depressing to think about.

People say "separate the art from the artist", but that kind of goes out the window when you're giving that artist money which will often indirectly be used to make your life more miserable. So at the very least, I can turn my brain off and enjoy the content without worrying about that aspect.

 

[UnsufficentBoobage]

That primarily being that 98.5% of stuff you're paying for, you will never watch.

Our tv is cheap, like 4$ per month.

Also, I do not miss 5 minute ad blocks between 10 minutes of show. That was absolutely disgusting.

But when else do you pee/get tea/put rice into microwave?

 

[Bussyking7]

Personally, I pirate because the state of entertainment industry and the people in it are extremely depressing to think about.

Incidentally, this is why I am still a raging internet pirate. I enjoy piracy more than I actually consume the thing I'm pirating. Stick it to the man, you'll like it better.

Why do you mongoloids always have such lame excuses for pirating? Just admit you're a cheap bastard like the rest of us.

 

[ArnoldPalmer]

Why do you mongoloids always have such lame excuses for pirating? Just admit you're a cheap bastard like the rest of us.

Oh, I'm not, though. I collect very expensive/old/rare physical media for archival and personal enjoyment. I just pirate because I hate the MPAA/RIAA/Hollyjew that much. I even pirate shit I already own.

 

[Rusty Crab]

Why do you mongoloids always have such lame excuses for pirating? Just admit you're a cheap bastard like the rest of us.

Same as Arnold. There's some very expensive stuff I collect (that I convince myself is an 'investment'). I don't mind parting with money. I just don't want that money going to people that very loudly and explicitly announce that they hate me.

 

[Megaroad 2012]

I tell people watching things on TV feels "truer", and they go blahblahblah whoevenwatchesTVanymore

I actually understand this. I've occasionally went out of my way just to see if someone would have recorded hours of TV, shows and commercials, just for the feels again.

I found some rando app on my phone and PS4 called Pluto TV. Meh selection of shows, but its free and kind of simulates the boobtube experience and at night when I just want to work on art with noise on in the background, the Star Trek channel aint bad. Just wish it wouldn't be a marathon of one straight show all day on some of these channels but an actual schedule or something.

I've been wondering if the reason why I feel there's no real definining cultural identity about the past 10 years beyond narcisistic social media influencer shit is because of lack of TV? Before everyone was stuck with more or less the same entertainment and ideas, where now everything is catered exclusively to your tastes. This applies to pretty much every medium now a days, but I remember how everyone was sort of on the same wavelength with a TV show or something now, and now? "HEY DID YOU WATCH WHATEVER-SHOW ON WHATEVER WEB STREAMING PLATFORM!?" Followed by a "no," and "sure I'll see it" only to never do it because it's a bitch to juggle all these apps.

 

[PaleTay]

The problem is everything is the same, Pokemon was new and now there's 40 different types of Pokemon games and it's the same with anything popular as companies just make the safe product. Also, at a kid you meet new people and have new experiences whereas as an adult you really don't do that very often unless you've experienced nothing to begin with.