Praising Physical Media Doesn’t Mean Trashing Digital Media

Between here and my other website, The Clutter Reports, I’m a staunch defender of physical media. It can’t be altered once you get it, unless you alter it. The physical disk doesn’t disappear because the company that released it wants you to buy the new version, which is why they hate it because they want to keep getting money rather than get it once. There’s also that tactile sensation of holding a book or a comic, of putting in the disk, cassette, or cartridge and knowing it will start up relatively fast compared to a download, and there’s no ads except what’s snuck into the background, which at least makes it feel more like real life. (Admittedly difficult to promote Starbucks that way in a fantasy setting or an alien planet. Though you can have an alien NAMED Starbuck.) If I have a choice, I’d rather own it than stream it.

However, there are advantages to digital media as well, and it seems that gets forgotten in the worries over kids always being on their smart devices or computers all day. Don’t get me wrong, they should get out and enjoy the world we live in if possible. If you live in a bad neighborhood or the weather’s bad, it isn’t possible. The 2020 lockdowns did teach us to keep our distance, and that allowed the control freaks using activism to keep us separated as a people to get us out of social connections in person rather than social media or an MMO, either using a screen or a VR headset. We totally need to get people out of the house and into the real world…but a book nook isn’t getting out into the real world, either. And I do love me some books.

When I first started writing this article, it was the idea that books were better than the internet, as if somehow ebooks, news sites, and the aforementioned social media isn’t reading. I couldn’t go far with that alone, but if we go over all the dumb arguments against digital media when it’s not the enemy, I have something to do commentary stuff on. So let’s do that.

We’ll start with the thing I just stated: reading on a tablet instead of a book is still reading. You should know this because unless you’re using a text to speech program that’s what you’re doing right now: reading. See, these are all a collection of words in written form that you have to read to understand. There’s all kinds of news, commentary, and written stories online. Reading a book on a tablet or e-readers isn’t the same experience as holding a physical book with pages, but the story doesn’t change. To Kill A Mockingbird is the same book no matter how you read it unless you’re reading some abridged Cliff Notes version. I’ve read War Of The Worlds physically and digitally. H.G. Wells wrote both even though digital didn’t exist in his lifetime. Go to Amazon and you can get physical books and digital books, and they don’t change. Project Guttenberg, the Internet Archive, and Google Books have PDF files of books in public domain and to be purchased (well, not the Archive) and Scribd was one of the sites I used to go over Seduction Of The Innocent. Reading is still reading.

Not even my full library. The non-fiction stuff isn’t even there.

The only difference is how you go through the book. A physical book just needs a good light to read by, and kids have read comics and prose alike using a flashlight under the covers. I don’t recommend doing that with a candle for the obvious reason, but people have read by candlelight, which your optometrist might not recommend. A tablet has its own screen, and there are debated concerns about long term screen watching that close. I have to take breaks starring at my computer screen while writing articles like this or doing digital art like my comic strip. I have to do that with books and paper drawing, too, and for the same reasons. Eye strain is real to a point, and affects some people more than others. So does your back, your arms, your hands and fingers, and it’s not good for circulation. Some people are lucky enough to spend hours just reading from either book or screen, and the rest of us readers envy them. “Kids don’t read enough” is inaccurate. They do nothing but read and watch videos, maybe listen to music or audio dramas. Reading has always been an insular experience unless you’re part of a book club or doing a review one chapter at a time every week. That last one might just be me.

As the internet reaches more areas, it becomes easier to get new stories and other forms of entertainment faster. Radio hasn’t gone away for music, sports, and news/commentary, but they stopped doing radio dramas outside of retro stations. The last time I heard a new radio drama on the radio was a Catholic station playing an episode of Adventures In Odyssey. You can get audiobooks, but the internet allows for audio dramas and comedies you might not be able to get otherwise and a lot faster. Sometimes even cheaper, as old shows and indie/fan projects are out there for free, or free with possible ads on YouTube. You can listen to music, stories, or commentaries while going for a walk or driving to the store. When it comes to audio, the internet just gets you a better quality audio without paying for satellite radio.

Livestreaming is just TV without a cable box, and the same for on demand. You may or may not have ads depending on where you watch it, but you can test it before buying it for your collection. Maybe you’ll only want to see it once, but if it’s something you want to watch a lot, get the Blu-Ray or whatever they have now. You can even download a file and keep on your hard drive, and some services have DVR. Expiration dates depend on the channel being recorded in some cases due to right issues. Some Frndly recordings last as long as you want and others end at a certain time. Tablo has some channels it’s not allowed to record, while Sling has a paid option where you can hold on to stuff. Frankly, the only difference if you trust the station or service to do more than bleep swears. The advantage to physical media is Disney can’t edit Daryll Hannah’s tush in Splash or Popeye Doyle using racially insensitive language tied to his character. ET still knows what a gun is. Digital media, if uncensored, reaches you quickly and helps you decide if you want to give up money and storage space to a physical copy that won’t be edited once you own it.

I may have too many videos, but when I’m done decluttering I’m still going to have a lot of them.

The internet also allows you to find new material from self and smaller publishers who can’t afford to get a physical copy in a store. This has been a benefit for indie filmmakers who aren’t tied to a theatrical release, game makers who can’t be a AAA developer, comic creators and novel authors who can’t afford a publishing fee, and so on. Actors and singers are discovered online. Then you have new forms of entertainment that you would never get on television, and they’ve tried. A game streamer doesn’t work for what TV stations need to survive, but on Twitch or YouTube, live or recorded, they’ve actually made a career at it, and big careers at that. YouTube filmmakers actually had box office hits this year with Iron Lung, Obsession, and The Backrooms because they started out small, which movie studios and distributors seem unwilling to do now because they need to have All The Money, not just a profit they can take the occasional risk with. Digital media allows people working on stuff in their spare time to find an audience and maybe get to make that their career.

The biggest problem with digital media is that you don’t actually own it. Even that’s not completely true. I own my copy of my photo and digital software, but that’s was a decision by the distributor. Always online DRM exists in physical media as well, and that’s where the problem starts. They want more money even after you bought it. Hollywood has always hated home video because on TV  and streaming they can keep making money forever, which video game companies are starting to get into. If they cared about comics, they’d probably try to do that as well. The problem is greed and control, not being digital itself.

So when you see a kid on his or her tablet, see what they’re doing. Maybe they ARE reading, but not a physical book. Maybe they’re watching the wrong type of programming, but we’ve had that worry since cable television. PlayStation and Rockstar Games aren’t in trouble because they have digital but because they’re dropping the physical option and forcing you to be online and download or unlock most of the game digitally anyway. Digital is not the enemy, corporate greed is. You can shut yourself off from the world just as easily with a physical book than a digital one, but you can’t get onto social media to talk about how great this amazing book you just read or listened to an audiobook of is and talk with others who read the same thing as easily. I will always support physical media, even as I declutter, but I don’t hate digital media. For one thing, I make it. I would love to have a physical comic of something I made, but for now small creators are getting out there while people discover new and rediscover old media, and that’s a good thing.