#Microblog Monday 554: Tangible Media
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I heard a person use the term “tangible media,” and it was such a perfect term to describe my relationship to books (and movies and music). I like tangible versions of most things. I especially do not want to invest money in intangible versions.
So I like streaming the least because it’s just a gatekeeper to intangible media. If you pay, you can access what is behind the gate. You cannot control what is behind the gate. You can pay to go behind the gate, be in the middle of using media, and have your access end due to licensing or corporate decisions.
I like paid intangible media slightly better because I pay once and have access indefinitely. Or, at least, until licensing issues get in the way because you don’t truly own your digital media. If the platform or product goes away, the media goes away, too.
I like tangible media the best, even though I like reading library ebooks. This is why I purchased three paper books this month so far and zero ebooks. I like to hold paper books and know that they are mine unless I misplace them or give them away.
How do you feel about tangible and intangible media?
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3 comments
I agree, Mel. I recently saw a book called “You Will Own Nothing,” about this. I do have & read a lot of e-books — living in a condo, I simply don’t have the storage space for a ton of paper books (although I do still have a lot of them…!), plus I do enjoy the portability (especially when travelling), the lower price (especially when they’re on sale) and the ability to adjust type sizes (lol). I still do buy paper books, though, especially from favourite authors, and there are some that I will never get rid of.
Most of my e-books are from Kobo, but I do have some from Amazon Kindle that aren’t available on Kobo. I don’t have a Kindle, but I read them on a Kindle app on my phone. I am considering getting a Kindle and downloading all my Kindle books to it, though… you may recall I had a fraud/payment dispute with Amazon a year or two ago, during which they suspended my account — including my ability to see & read Kindle books on the app that I’d already bought and paid for! I was not impressed…
I gave my stereo & all my vinyl albums & cassettes to our nephew before we moved, but I still have all my CDs (and a CD player), as well as a collection of favourite movies on DVD and a DVD player. I will admit I don’t play them much these days, but nevertheless I am glad I have them.
I also still have all my printed photos & negatives, from the days when we had those, and I have several years’ worth of those scanned to my laptop. I don’t print off my photos anymore (aside from the one odd for framing), but I regularly back up my phone photos to my laptop, and my laptop backed up to a portable hard drive. My phone photos automatically get backed up to Google Photos, but (as you can tell…!) I am paranoid about losing them.
I like intangible media. I like knowing I have all my books with me when I have my phone or ipad, and all my music too. I have two books I bought some time ago, because I discovered I still had cards from a bookstore that entitled me to free books. I still haven’t read them. I use them to prop up my laptop when I am on a zoom call! I find ebooks so much easier.
I love my tangible media as far as movies and music. I like physical books but I don’t buy them anymore because I’ve had to move them a few times. I have a lot of classics though.
I don’t like streaming much because they move things around. One minute I can watch something on Hulu and the next it’s only on Netflix. That’s annoying.