Now we just stream it

Abandoned in place
Strathroy, ON
August 2019
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Once upon a time not so very long ago, the way we entertained ourselves looked very different than it does today.

Our kids have vivid memories of pyjama-clad expeditions to the local video store where they’d troll the aisles in search of something worth watching. We’d often spend inordinate amounts of time in there, agonizing over what to bring home. Nobody wanted to make the wrong choice.

Eventually, after much negotiation, some stale popcorn, and perhaps a few spurious tears, we emerged from the store with a stack of VHS tapes - later DVDs - and fast-coalescing plans for the order in which we watched them.

The local video store no longer exists. Streaming services have wiped them off the map, and turned our long-treasured collections of content into dust-covered artifacts, buried in boxes and forgotten in shadowy basement corners.

We’re no longer stuck watching the same thing on the living room TV, either: Kids drift to their own rooms, smartphones, tablets, and even gaming systems stuffed with enough content to keep them busy through - and beyond - adulthood.

And as I stand in front of a long-abandoned video store in a town not far from ours, I wonder what we’ve lost along the way. Sure, we now have more convenience - no panicked runs to the return slot before deadline, and no late fees. But the whole experience is less rich, less, I don’t know, connected.

You don’t need to bundle into your jams for a trip with your family to the video store. The popcorn may no longer be stale, but the memories are nowhere near as strong.

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