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Human culture has always been deeply rooted in physical media, but it has lost its prevalence with the introduction of more advanced technology. Instead of listening to music on a CD player or buying a DVD to watch movies at home, we do everything online.
We listen to our music on streaming apps, watch our movies on our phones and get the latest pop culture news on social media. However, a growing Gen-Z demographic is reintegrating physical media into our spaces.
I want to preface this article by saying I am guilty of being too focused on my phone, doom-scrolling and being reliant on technology. The technology we have today has become an inescapable part of our everyday life. Despite being unavoidable, it does have the capability of improving people’s lives in more ways than one.
As our lives grow increasingly digital, I believe that being able to enjoy media outside of our phones is more important. While new technology itself is not an inherently bad thing, it is imperative that we do not get swept up in it. That is where physical media comes in.
I have been collecting CDs for a little over a year, and magazines for only a couple months. I have fallen in love with the habit of collecting. I get excited when I find an album I’ve been on the hunt for, and I look out for magazine editions that I want to add to my collection.
Being able to hold something that someone worked hard on for months has a different feeling than just looking at it online. Things like records and CDs come with special items that make the experience even more exciting, like posters, letters from the artist and inside looks on how they were made. This, to me, is what it is all about.
Collecting has incentives and gives a person an objective. Whether that is saving up to buy an expensive record or wanting all editions of a certain series, completing a collection achieves a goal.
Social media and being online can get overwhelming, and people often find themselves getting influenced to buy certain products, listen to certain music or look a certain way. With physical media, it is up to you. The things you consume are based on your personal interests, and not something you were told to like. You buy what you want.
There are hundreds of ways, and things, to collect. There is no wrong or right way to do it. If you want to collect silverware, do it! It is about things that make you happy and improve or add to your space and well-being.
My CD collection makes me endlessly happy; it is a conversation starter when friends visit, and just something I look forward to. My CD player was given to me by my mother, and thus adds a little slice of home while I’m away for college.
Finding your community in a world where being online can sometimes be daunting is essential to not get absorbed into the often addictive world of social media. There are stores dedicated to records, conventions for comics and thriving communities that bring people together over collector items and a shared love for the physical.
Your people are out there, and finding your niche can be so much fun. Everyone starts somewhere. Starting my collection was one of the best decisions I ever made, and I can only hope that I have convinced people that collecting is worth every penny.