Physical Media Is Dead
I'm calling it now, this is my prediction. By the year 2100, we will no longer be using physical media. I may be off on the date, but I know for a fact in a few more generations, physical media will be gone forever.
We're living in an age where children are growing up with tablet computers and ipads, which are still new developments to me, and I'm only 21. I was born in an age where music and movies were stored on cassette tapes. I still have a bunch of VHS tapes from my childhood.
My point is I grew up in an age where physical media was a constant thing. You couldn't just watch a movie online, you had to have a physical copy to watch it. Yeah, you could get a pirate physical copy, but the point is it was still a physical, tangible object you had to physically own.
But now we live in a world where every piece of media can be broadcast to you via streaming or downloads. Almost every building, whether it be a home or a business, has wi-fi. There's rarely a time nowadays, especially in heavily populated areas like cities, that you'll be without a constant internet connection of some kind, even a weak one.
So how come physical media is going to die? Well, here's how.
We don't need it anymore. We're already at a point where we could stop printing books and burning discs, and it could mean huge changes for the world in terms of how much things cost and what kind of impact these products have on the environment. Imagine how many DVDs you own in your house, think of all the plastic that went into making the boxes, the discs, and the paper that went into the covers. On average a person owns 15 DVDs, so let's say ten people each have 15 DVDs. That's 150 DVDs in total. Those ten people could live together in an apartment building, so that's 150 DVDs for a single building.
How about books? I personally prefer holding a physical book, being able to see it and feel it in front of me, but I'm well aware there's no reason other than the aesthetic. E-books are not only safer and better for the environment, they're also a lot cheaper since you don't need to physically print the book onto paper.
With services like Steam, Netflix, Kindles and Spotify, there's no reason to go and buy physical media anymore. Hell, it makes more sense to go completely digital anyway. Take my word for it, in a few years the gangly spotty-faced youth will be burning books en-masse since we no longer need them. DVDs will be relics in museums. Physical media will be, in fact, dead.
We're living in an age where children are growing up with tablet computers and ipads, which are still new developments to me, and I'm only 21. I was born in an age where music and movies were stored on cassette tapes. I still have a bunch of VHS tapes from my childhood.
My point is I grew up in an age where physical media was a constant thing. You couldn't just watch a movie online, you had to have a physical copy to watch it. Yeah, you could get a pirate physical copy, but the point is it was still a physical, tangible object you had to physically own.
But now we live in a world where every piece of media can be broadcast to you via streaming or downloads. Almost every building, whether it be a home or a business, has wi-fi. There's rarely a time nowadays, especially in heavily populated areas like cities, that you'll be without a constant internet connection of some kind, even a weak one.
So how come physical media is going to die? Well, here's how.
We don't need it anymore. We're already at a point where we could stop printing books and burning discs, and it could mean huge changes for the world in terms of how much things cost and what kind of impact these products have on the environment. Imagine how many DVDs you own in your house, think of all the plastic that went into making the boxes, the discs, and the paper that went into the covers. On average a person owns 15 DVDs, so let's say ten people each have 15 DVDs. That's 150 DVDs in total. Those ten people could live together in an apartment building, so that's 150 DVDs for a single building.
How about books? I personally prefer holding a physical book, being able to see it and feel it in front of me, but I'm well aware there's no reason other than the aesthetic. E-books are not only safer and better for the environment, they're also a lot cheaper since you don't need to physically print the book onto paper.
With services like Steam, Netflix, Kindles and Spotify, there's no reason to go and buy physical media anymore. Hell, it makes more sense to go completely digital anyway. Take my word for it, in a few years the gangly spotty-faced youth will be burning books en-masse since we no longer need them. DVDs will be relics in museums. Physical media will be, in fact, dead.
26-30, M
