I’m not yet sure who writes the blog “Stupid is Winning”, but whomever it is – there are lots of interesting and compelling ideas there (If anyone does know who writes that, pass it on).
Today, I came across “In 2013 Google, Apple and Valve will kill piracy” and, while I didn’t agree with all of it – there was an amazing passage I hadn’t seen touched on elsewhere:
The way I consume media today is very different. Movies and tv shows have become radio with an optional picture that I’m only going to devote my full attention to if it’s something great. That’s what makes going to the cinema so awesome for me, a rare 2 – 3 hour block of being completely focused on a movie when I literally won’t even watch most movies for free.
That’s so true for so many people now, who have cut off the older, more traditional forms of media. People are now much more distracted and have many more available formats and devices with which to watch movies or TV. The idea of going to see a movie in a theatre is changing from “The atmosphere and experience” into an idea of “being captive” to what we’re watching. The more immersive, higher-quality, the better. Perhaps this time, more than any other, entertainers are tasked with breaking through the noise by making higher quality content or confusing us. To many, having near unlimited access to movies and television means skipping most – even if they’re free.
This made me think of the now-torn-down Cineplex movie theatre that was in the Eaton Center through the 1980s. They had the worst, smallest, most unimpressive theatres of any I had ever seen. But, it was full of teens out for the experience of seeing something and perhaps finding a gathering place in a mall. That theatre would be empty today.