My old way of finding footage was a lot more fun than clicking through thumbnails

I used to love the hunt. I'd go to estate sales in Spokane every weekend, buy a box of random VHS tapes for five bucks, and spend the evening going through them on my old Panasonic deck. You never knew what you'd get, a kid's birthday from 1992, a weird local commercial, maybe something truly strange. Now, it feels like I just scroll through online marketplaces looking at pictures of tape labels. I bought a lot labeled 'family trip' last month, and it was just a single, unopened copy of a Jane Fonda workout video. The surprise is gone. The physical act of finding and playing the tape was half the point. Has anyone else felt like the actual finding part has gotten less interesting?

3 comments

3 Comments

seanh912mo ago

Everything's just a product now, right?

avery8052mo ago

Totally get that. Unfollowed a bunch of accounts that felt like ads. Helped a lot.

willowroberts1mo ago

Is it really that bad though? I've found a few people who actually write decent reviews and share real experiences, @seanh91. Not everything is a product, some of it is still just people sharing what works for them.