I remember when binge watching meant renting a whole DVD box set from Blockbuster on Friday night

Back around 2005, I'd grab a full season of The West Wing for $15 at the Blockbuster near my apartment. You had to plan your whole weekend around it, because if you didn't finish it by Sunday, you were paying late fees. Now I just open Netflix on my phone and watch three episodes of some show while waiting for my laundry. The biggest change is I used to know every actor's name because I sat through the credits. Now I'm halfway through a season and can't tell you who plays the main character. Has anyone else noticed they pay way less attention to shows now than back in the DVD days?

3 comments

3 Comments

ellis.faith20d ago

I read somewhere that DVD menus were basically free entertainment.

lilyp3720d ago

@ellis.faith you're right about DVD menus being free entertainment, but I actually think people pay MORE attention now, not less. Back in the Blockbuster days I'd always skip through credits cause they took forever and there was no easy way to look up who the guest star was. Now I just pause and google the actor's face to find out their whole filmography in 10 seconds. Plus with streaming I can rewind a scene I missed, which I definitely couldn't do on a rented DVD without getting yelled at. The show I'm watching now has this complex plot where every tiny detail matters, and I'm way more tuned in because I can control the experience completely.

keith90020d ago

That reminds me of something I heard on a podcast about how streaming has changed our attention spans. They did this study where people watching on DVD actually retained more character names because the credits forced you to sit there and absorb the info. But the guy being interviewed made a good point - he said we pay attention differently now, more like scanning for details we care about rather than taking in everything passively. I remember watching Lost on DVD and getting so frustrated when I couldn't figure out who the guy in the background was, but now I just freeze frame and look it up. Still, there's something about that old way that made the shows feel more important, you know? Like the whole ritual of putting the disc in and watching the unskippable FBI warning made it an event.