"It's Not Like Facebook Friends Replaced Real-Life Friends"

"It's not that streaming platforms aren't being curated—it's who's doing the curating. 'What’s passively happening, whether people realize it or not, is that corporations are deciding what we should watch,' adds Barr. 'The thing that made VHS catch on in the '80s was this great sense of emancipation; prior to that, the only way you were seeing a movie was just by going to a theater. With streaming we are regressing a little bit, because once again the sacrifice we are making in order to have the ease of streaming is that we are putting that decision-making process in the hands of Netflix, Amazon, or whatever service.' And more often than not, those decisions are financially motivated—which is fine for the company's coffers, but can also lead to that all-too-familiar fatigue that comes with scrolling past endless straight-to-video schlock and movies you've already seen but keep getting recommendations for."


Jennifer M. Wood in Wired visits surviving video stores, like Vidiots in Santa Monica.