It has become a universal experience. Logging onto Netflix to watch your favorite movie only to find that that movie, and many others along with it, have been removed from the catalog. You pull up Google to see what service it’s been moved to, only to find it’s unavailable everywhere.
With the introduction of dozens of streaming services, many people have ditched their DVDs and vinyls for passwords. This is an epidemic that is not talked about enough, but the vanishing of physical media will soon haunt our generation.
It’s probably something most of us don’t think about; however, this is truly a scary thought. Companies can keep media from being available online when it was previously plentiful on shelves. So, what would happen if Netflix crashed one day and could not reestablish its database?
The outside films in Netflix’s catalog would still exist, though many of them are not sold as DVDs in stores anymore, as they may be multiple years old. What about the Netflix original series? “House of Cards,” “Stranger Things,” and “Bridgerton” are huge shows that have dominated pop culture and would be lost in their entirety.
This is not to say that online media has no place in society; quite the opposite. Preserving media online is a great way for more people to access music, books, movies and localized content that they may not be able to see otherwise.
The concern is when this media becomes less and less accessible in a physical manner. Most college students don’t own a DVD player and cannot easily watch a DVD if needed.
One of the greatest trends of the last few years is the revival of vinyl collections; not only does it support artists greatly, but it also gives people a way to access their favorite works without relying on a third-party medium like Spotify or Apple Music.
It is terrifying to think that if a company wanted to, they could pull their entire collection of content, and the impact would be felt by the everyday consumer who would not be able to watch or listen to their favorite content.
The overreliance on online catalogs has started to erase the need for physical media, but that does not mean that physical media is something that should not be maintained anyway. So many books, plays and songs have been lost to time because their physical state was not preserved, and there is no reason not to try to create backup copies of our current media.
Natalie Peck is a senior communication major from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Natalie can be reached at [email protected].
