The Importance of Real Things
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- Опубліковано 30 тра 2024
- We're owning less and it's costing us more.
I hope this video makes any sense I'm much more of a filmmaker than a video essayist so I apologize if the thoughts are scattered 😅Thanks for watching!
Death of the Follower: • Death of the Follower ...
0:00 - The book shelf
1:54 - We're owning less media
4:47 - Floor of nuance
8:13 - How it affects Art
12:43 - Real things of the past
More of my stuff
📸 / teddjku
💻www.tedkutina.com/
All music from Soundstripe - Фільми й анімація
What's also crazy is recently a librarian came across my Tiktok FYP and explained how libraries pay for their copies of books and digital media. They typically pay higher prices for a permanent physical book but it's on their shelf and can be loaned out infinitely. Whereas the digital copies of books cost libraries more by doing pay per check out and have to be renewed constantly with the publisher. The push to digital media has harmed the library more than even our individual wallets. I have come to understand that digital media is almost always predatory.
I swear it's libraries against the universe at this point lmao, that's crazy
You can get digital titles on different licensing agreements. At our academic library we prioritise digital books on an unlimited user license. But some publishers are desperate to fuck us over. Etextbook licenses being the worst, as you have to buy a digital copy for each student that will expire after one semester, and these cost thousands each
This is good to know. Thanks for sharing!
remember when digital media wasnt built to screw us over :(
(except for viruses ofc)
Inde3d😮
Ted’s mom here! Thank you to everyone watching, and for your thoughtful and kind engagement! I’ve known for a long time how talented Ted is :) but it is nice to hear from so many others. Stay real.
You seem like the sweetest mom ever!
Aww.. this is so cute 🥰
awww hi m’am :3 would cry if my mom did this for me lol
You have a very intelligent and insightful son!
Aawww
i sort of relish this era of UA-cam where amazing stories are being told in the deep recesses of a platform dominated by attention-grabbing, repetitive slop. this video is fantastic, your skill and passion is apparent, and this video matters in a tangible way even though its reach is still limited. please keep making videos, I can't wait to see what's next.
ik i had to sub just because the rest of his videos seem so high quality!
There are tons of amazing videos, you just need to be able to find them. There are likely a good amount of large channels in the hundreds or millions of subscribers that you would think are very high quality but just haven't been able to find yet. Obviously smaller creators are in an even worse spot but the problem is somewhat universal, we cannot have perfect information of all content on the site in our minds to be able to find the good stuff. Personally over the years I've found enough amazing channels that I consistently have more to watch than I have time for.
this is a refreshing perspective
love to see those that are willing to support growing creators out in the world, not bystand or bandwagon
Agreed, we're living through a new golden age of YT without realizing. Hate to say it, but ad-supported content is what made it possible. You can actually make a living as a UA-camr if your videos are quality.
I am sincerely one mental breakdown away from just printing all the pictures I care about and keeping a physical photo album and (metaphorically) chucking my phone into a river. I started a little CD collection as a very young teen so I could play One Direction in my mom's car and a couple years ago I just decided to start growing it again, I have bought most of it second-hand and it is my pride and joy. It also completely changed how I listen to music. Sure, individual songs stand as complete works by themselves but when I play a full album from start to finish in the order it was devised by the artists behind it I feel like I am almost paying it respect by listening with intentionality and appreciation for the whole thing. Plus all the cracks and scratches on my CD cases will be a testament to my love of the music far superior to a Spotify wrapped. And the same goes for my books! My love will outlive me in all those bent spines.
Keep Calm and Carry On.....
Scratches on CDs, now that brings back memories. I remember recognizing my copy of Star Wars: Rogue Squadron just by one dent on the CD, which for some reason didn't corrupt or damage the contents.
YES, I feel this
I know for pictures you can print them out at certain convient stores like Walgreens for super cheap depending on the size! I’ve gotten many photos from my phone printed there as a result.
i feel this so hard, buying second hand discs has been the thing that has kept me going for the past couple years. my collection almost has 2000 cds in it, it's a bit of a sprawl
I am now validated in my book buying. Kidding but my parents never understood why I would buy so many books, movies, and cd's. They would always say, "Why are you buying the books your not going to read them." Or "Those movies are on streaming services, why are you buying them." To me it is the feeling of owning something physical and being able to call it yours. So watching your video has basically been what my heart has been saying this whole time. So thank you for that Ted. Great Video and sick typewriter, makes me want to break mine out and do some writing.
Thank you so much!! I am obsessed with that thing, we keep the typewriter by a "Leave a note" corner for guests, I might do a video on that :-) 25 bucks at an antique store!
I feel that way as well..and I prefer to have the hard copies of all of my video games.
break it out. I no longer have the family typewriter anymore. my parents gave it away :(
I appreciate that for a good portion of this video, there is no music, it doesn't force an emotion on the watcher. Instead, you get to focus on what is being said substantially, and it allows space for actual reflection and assimilation. Pretty dope! I wish more people realise this and adapt a similar style when the topic they're sharing requires some reflection :))
The video is fantastic btw, the topic and the flow of it is great. Made me reflect on a lot of things!
If I have to hear one more "epic emotional" back track, I'm going to vomit. So few creators are confident enough in their work's message to let it resonate in silence.
the little inside joke was brilliant actually
Bo burnam yea?
I’m not entirely sure
@@asmolyeti6689 yes!
Bro thinks he's Bo Burnham😭😭😭💀💀🔥🔥🔥🔥
eyy my man
yes i loved this painfully relatable and depressing bit. recognized it immediately. a solid nod to Bo and glad he found some inspo from him
this part. I hate how art has become this curated, algorithm-based content thrown at us. no longer are we walking through a record store, talking to the clerk about what vinyl calls to us, but instead we are thrown a mumbled, algorithm-created playlist that requires no actual thoughtfulness. you hit the nail on the head here, great video.
the contentification of art is probably one of the greatest tragedies of this generation, you can really feel it in almost anything released recently, that voice in the back of the artists head telling them to appease a machine.
In my opinion, libraries, music streaming services, and online databases are incredible tools for discovery and exploration, as well as for things I know I'm only going to consume once. For example, I don't need to own a physical copy of every textbook and academic source that I need to read for university classes. However, with media that I will return to over and over, I want the security of a physical copy. I love the fact that I have solid, physical ownership of C.S. Lewis's books, and CCR's greatest hits, and all Shakespeare's plays, and prints of the great Renaissance artworks.
Basically, we should do our best to make sure that if the grid goes down, we'll still have the media that makes life worthwhile.
A lot of media that makes life worthwhile is digital for many people, so not much you can do "if the grid goes down" besides try to recreate the electronics yourself.
@@KingButcher the point is to find things that aren’t digital. DVD players exist
@@asmrigloo DVD players require power to function ("digital" is in the name), and if you have power it's better to just boot up a computer which supports playing more formats and storing more media anyways.
You’ll need a separate disc drive for new computers unless you buy an old model computer with a disc drive for playing DVD discs. Portable DVD players can be charged anywhere with an outlet. Handy for long trips.
@@sakunaruful They're called optical drives and you can get USB adapters for them online. Similarly, laptops or phones/smaller SBCs can be charged anywhere too + provide more functionality.
ironically, im extremely happy the algorithm brought me this video. awesome work, i loved every minute.
One of the best dates I went on was going to a bookstore and we literally just browsed and showed eachother our favorite fiction books, the genres we liked, the stories still being printed, then back to their place to look at their bookcase and they excitedly showed me all their grandmothers books they still had, and others no longer in print, and i would spot a title I'd read as a teen that I'd forgotten about and got so excited, and then told them about how we had a first copy of the Hobbit at my mother's house, and all these sketchbooks and photo albums, and vinyl covers and handwritten recipe books. Having a book is having a time capsule to someone's heart and brain, holding their idea in your hand not just of the author but of the person who loved it enough to keep it and move it house to house, and annotate the edge and recommend it to a yound relative who recently got obsessed with reading sci fi. Books are one of the most important things we as a species create, and that includes Chuck Tingle and all the other crap out there haha
this is all so lovely♡ and that's such a cute date idea too!
I always love when artists I like make illustration books. Since I never see their work other than on the internet, buying their physical books allow me to see their art indefinitely, no matter whether the artists drop off the internet forever or not.
Any artist can delete their account(s) and never post their art ever again, for any reason at any time. I work in retail, and I've become low-key friends with a few coworkers. Eventually they're fired or leave, and I never see them again. I know it's so normal! I try to not take for granted the art I love seeing on the internet, as well as the connections I make with people. I try to own at least a little bit of my favorite art books, and stay in contact with the few people I like the most.
One of my coworkers currently holds the 4th volume of Witch Hat Atelier, a manga I collect. He keeps forgetting to give it back to me lmao. If he's fired tomorrow, maybe I won't see my book again. I'll be mad, but at least I knew the risk when I lent it to him. Even when I own physical books, I know it'll never be 100% permanent ownership.
Nice video! :)
Deff! When I’m older, I want to make a book with my little doodles and character art
Omg this resonated with me, and I love witch hat too!
A few years ago I decided to stop getting spotify and start spending that $10 on a CD every month. I ended up spending some extra because CDs are by and large a bit more expensive than a spotify membership but it's been worth it to own the music I really love. (Plus I've loved being able to get my little dinky MP3 player out and listen to music while working without having the distraction of an entire smartphone in the palm of my hand.)
That's actually a really cool idea! I may have to try that!
I needed to read this so bad. I’m more into vinyl than CDs but Spotify is… I think it’s just time to say goodbye
And whats more, CDs have better audio quality than streaming, so win win
That’s cool! Do you per chance buy them online? I wanna try this but where I live everything has to be shipped in
Thats a good idea, and also its free to burn cds at home! My daddy has an old enough computer so me and my friend got lots of our fav albums for free!
The desire to create as a human being is something that you cannot get rid of. To be remembered, even by a piece of paper or by being a blip in the digital media. This inspired me to keep working for my book. Thank you for this.
I will never be able to understand people like you, are you not afraid of death, are you not feeling any agony and despair/hopelessness because of the realization that you will die and everything will disappear that you worked for and spent your entire life on? and you will never exist again, you will never be able to experience anything again, to do anything again, why are you doing this then if this will not save you from death nor will ensure you a happiness?
@@CamelliaFlingertwell, if we are all going to die then why not?
@@CrabO2 don't get me wrong, i'm not talking about motivation to do something, i'm unable to comprehend how you're not suffering in agony, dread and despair every second of your life 24/7 while you're awake
@@CamelliaFlingert nah
@@CamelliaFlingertI mean... you are dying too? Why aren't you in agony about it?
I'm not scared of death, if I think really hard about it I get a sense of dread over the whole thing that you're just ~gone~, but tbh it's also a relief. I don't wanna live forever
Im bookbinding fanfics for this exact reason!
I want to do this, or at least just print them out but ink is so expensive 😭. I just download them for now but it would be nice to have them on my shelf with all my other books
This video's so pretty that it feels more like a clip from a professional documentary than a youtube essay. The cinematography is seriously above and beyond. And you didn't even sell me a meal kit or a VPN so... thanks for the free vid!!
So a middleground that I found myself in as a personal endeavour and interest is that I like to hoard data,
there's a community of tech nerds out there including me that run their own NAS or Network Attached Storage, buy a bunch of Hard Drives and run a RAID on it so we can hoard as much data as we can, sometimes the entirety of wikipedia or a bunch of videos, tv shows, etc onto it so we feel like we 'own' it.
its not usually the idea of just having physical media, but its about having full control of it, ownership, etc regardless of what medium we have.
HOWEVER, i do tend to finish books that have a physical cover than digital ones so.. yeah.
You guys are heros!
Physical keepsake is just a phenotype of our desire, but NEVER a real sustainable solution. It always strikes me as lazy for software enthusiasts to solely rely on physical media instead of being active in community maintenence across the world.
Same, I have a hard drive full of media and I love being able to tag it properly and have my own curated library of archived, maybe obscure, and potentially lost media 😱
This is cool!
@@MKat596 there's something so wierdly comforting about digital housekeeping and organisation. Just reordering all your movies/books/shows/media with a specific format in specific files. Creating order from chaos.
We don't need to own books, but we also shouldn't not-own media from big corporations; instead we should realise that it's literally the same to not-own things from libraries but way cheaper and more social. Like literally Amazon and Netflix just reinvented libraries but in capitalist.
(also I love the inside hommage with the top-down lying on the floor sad boy techno-depressed shot)
yep!!! thats why I dont (usually) buy books unless ive read them from the library first and I really love it. but sometime I do fall into that capitalist rabbit hole and have a book buying "spree" but I always go back to the library she's like the good dependent friend and barnes and noble is like my toxic ex that I keep going back to before I come to my senses lol
my book collection is small but person to me :) just the way I like it
i love libraries so much but mine has literally nothing (it's one room, with half of it taken up by a kids 'area') 😭
@@sleeptiredsid, check and see if your library is connected to other libraries, typically now libraries have a website through their state where you can reserve the book you want online and they'll send it to your library for you to borrow.
@@sleeptireds Libraries get better the more people use them. If noone uses them they often get less funding, so the best you can do is use it and annoy your friends and family to do the same.
It’s far easier to own “real” things and curate them than having it all stored digitally. The amount of times I’ve tried to organise and sort files from all the different apps that all have their own storage systems is frustrating. It doesn’t even bring as much joy seeing 80,000 photos in my photo library compared to a box of photos when I was a kid.
True! And curating them around your home is so much more fulfilling when you have people over so they can actually see what you like + collect rather than it just sitting in your phone.
I have memory issues and struggle to keep track of my favorite art and media. Having physical copies of movies, albums, books and even posters helps me feel well versed in the world and in my own brain. I keep my CD collection in my childhood dollhouse, and my vinyls in a shelf my grandma painted for me. And as someone who also has trouble making decisions, having what I know I like laid out before me makes thinking and choosing much easier and less stressful - it’s so easy to pick a DVD movie than it is to scroll on a streaming service for forever. Want something new to watch? Go to a thrift store or Walmart and find a random movie. Even better? Closing your eyes and picking a random movie/CD, one of my favorite things to do with friends.
Even besides the whole “ownership of things bought” problem, books, DVDs, and CDs are almost always rectangles. Rows of verticals rectangles on shelves looks _nice._ It’s my main decoration in my room. I’ve got like 3-4 small bookshelves (depending how you count them), all crammed about full, and they’re just visually pleasing.
Yes
oh hell yes. "physical media looks great" is for sure just as valid an argument as "ownership of things bought so corporations cannot decide when i can have it or when they take it away"
As someone who types & transcribes TikToks i enjoy word-for-word, this hit in just the right spot. spectacular. thank you
that's a really nice hobby
Who knows, maybe these are the things historians of the future will reconstruct our culture with when theres a big data wipe or something.
I occasionally download videos I think I'll want 30+ years from now
I started this a few years ago when I looked at my oldest playlists on youtube... and it was all [removed] [removed] [not available in your country]
for little understandable reason... at some point youtube purged a lot of old videos from seemingly dead channels and idk why
@@grain9640 maybe to free up some storage?
i love this omg what's your tiktok? you should make a tiktok whenever you transcribe one
One day everything digital, everything on servers and files will cease to exist and the only things we’ll have left will be physical media, music, books, movies, besides that owning physical media is just COOL and the fact that things like cars and regular households are phasing out CD players in turn for little monitors and computers just makes me sad.I love physical media so much there’s just something so comforting in knowing that at any time you could go back to them whenever you want for as long as you own, it is something special that digital media could never compete with. The action of taking out a disk from the casing and placing it into the reader, hearing it spin as it boots up for the one hundredth time could just never be replaced with the effortless tap of a button in my mind, and I wish more people felt the same way and didn’t feel the need to replace everything with a screen. This video is great
i also had no idea the guy who made the song(s like) kitchen fork was the ceo of patreon???
physical stuff degrades as well, and can't have free identical backup duplicates either.
but i fully agree it's infinitely more satisfying to deal with, i believe it's just our nature. we've been "making" stuff for hundreds of thousands of years, it feels good to appreciate and make use of a thing you can physically hold in your hand, and not just conjure up an abstraction of.
which is also probably among the reasons why vinyls and mechanical cameras and the like have made a comeback (after a relatively short drop) and i believe are here to stay. it's who we are, we make tools and use them, and it anchors us in the present and maybe even helps us think and develop the right way.
digital is extremely useful but we shouldn't forget what's actually worth having and using and living for (and we won't).
@@Meckoloyeah lol he’s a talented musician and has a UA-cam channel, it’s great stuff. He seems like a chill dude.
@@calinguga definitely
both have their flaws and it’s difficult because the internet seems to hold things forever when physical degrades but at the same time digital media can be lost as well, it’s a tricky call and it sucks that we don’t have some kind of middle ground for it, i guess the closest might be a usb or hard drive but even then it’s not exactly perfect
@@Meckoloyeah! I love Jack conte :) he’s also in pompaloose
This video made me want to not journal or scrapbook digitally anymore, I love the convinience and endless amount of free layouts and templates available to write about my day or layout my month or week and the hundreds of stickers I can download to decorate them and put in photos from my camera roll seamlessly but I never really feel like it’s mine and if they decide to put a paywall or a subscription I can’t afford on it it’s not mine. Not that there’s anything wrong with digital journaling as a whole but now I’ll be using a cute pink notebook I was scared to write in because it’s too pretty but now I’ll be putting it to use. I also want to get into collecting vinyls even more now once I save up!
journalling physically is such a great release plus its so nice to have a little section of my bookshelf with all my previous journals. i even love getting slightly smaller journals so that i fill them up faster, and can have an "era" of my life in my hands. i have a horrible memory and tend to believe in the theory of externded mind, where the objects we put our thoughts into/record our memories in become a part of our brain in a way, just outside of our body. so i like that the parts of my brain im putting into the world are cute little books with my handwriting!!!
@@emilyr8668 that’s so beautiful!! love the idea of having cute littler journals for different eras of my life, the theory of the extended mind isn’t something ive heard of before but it sounds so lovely and makes journaling even more enjoyable!
I'm in a fight with myself when it comes to collections vs minimalism. I'm sort of both. Ultimately, I'm still buying and keeping physical version of all my video games (whenever possible). For books however, I decided that I'm gonna give them away as soon as I'm done reading. Sometimes it feels wrong because I do get attached to stories. But I notice that the longer ago it is I read that book, the less I feel personally attached to it until eventually it just become meaningless in my shelf. Now, I only keep a book every now and then, when it feels really important to me. But once it stops feeling that way, I let it go. I only have one small row of books now. But I don't think I'll ever get rid of the 3 boxed of children books in my basement that I grew up with. It's like a treasure chest.
I'm the same way and have compromised with myself. I will read a book on digital first and if I *really* like it and can see myself reading it again down the line, I will buy the physical copy to have. This way it's a more curated collection of what I enjoy and not a mess of stuff I was "meh" on.
Physical media exists in the real, actual, physical world. It's not part of the fake digital world that is overlaid on the actual physical world. This is comforting.
There's nothing fake about digital media. It's all rocks and frequency in the end of the day. But ownership is an issue. Who controls the rocks? Unfortunately it's corperations and so we get screwed over
I find that the feeling, and the physicality of buying the media I love, is super satisfying.
I went to a thrift shop and got a book from there. When I went home and flipped through it, I found highlights and minor annotations. Nothing too extensive, but there was a charm to it. Even a slight insight into the mind of the previous owner.
I can tell you, many things collect dust and I am no different. Say, what if I lose access to certain things because of state restriction or ownership? Then I just ruined a good copy with my terrible handwriting in a pretty book.
Nothing does last forever, maybe you should leave annotations. Careful, considerate annotations. Even when things are becoming less owned, if you don't act like you own it, the dust and time certainly damn will. I'm not saying be careless with stuff and go crazy, but you should still use it.
Who knows? Maybe I'll typewrite a whole other copy if some book becomes the last. These days, you cannot truly kill a piece of media without extensive work. Doesn't mean you shouldn't help with preservation efforts.
The internet is the largest collection of knowledge man has ever made. It's also the most easily accessible, therefore it has no value beyond the instant you need it, and people freely treat art the same way
Little anecdote here: I study Fine Arts in my country (Uruguay) and a little activity we had last week was bringing five objects that we deemed important for us and explain to the class why we brought these things.
It was so inspiring to see how mere things can have so much importance to someone and "owning" something sometimes isn't just a property thing, it holds a lot of emotional value and speaks about your life, the life of other people and humanity on itself.
We been doing this since old times, keeping stuff for luck, for good fortune...to remember parts of our life.
Humanity can suck hard sometimes but this kind of emotional responses are what keeps me engaged to watch how life unfolds
UA-cam recommended this to me but it's so timely with that iPad ad that some are upset about. I think creatives do use tech to create these days, but having a piano collapse into a tech device that becomes obsolete in 2 years ignores how that piano might be a piece of their identity, taking up space in their physical world. Something that represents who they are beyond just the time we spend on Earth. Just something I've been thinking about.
Honestly there’s nothing better than real physical objects. I’m 28 so I grew up with computers and had my first smartphone when I was a teenager.
I’ve been writing in notebooks since I was 13, about everything and anything. In the meantime, I’ve had a bunch of phones and computers, sometimes lost all data due to damage or theft. All I can say is that I’m really happy I didn’t write digitally, I have my notebooks and sometimes the stuff I wrote was totally cringe and I could’ve been alright without it but it’s part of my past, and it’s totally priceless to me. Even if everything had been kept digitally, I would not have been able to see the mark of time as easily, as I see my handwriting changing, and the scratching of words, and the grammar mistakes. It is so authentic to me.
I also started taking pictures with analog cameras everytime I went on vacation since I was twenty, so it does take time and money to have the film developed and put the pictures in an album, but the intention behind taking that ONE picture out of 32, that you know HAS to count, makes it so much better.
As I grow up, I look back at those albums and I am just so happy to have a collection of memories that is not on screens. That I can go through my things and accidentally stumble upon an album I had forgotten about, sit down on the floor and look at all the pictures.
Finally, i am so incredibly grateful to have a car that plays cds. Again, when i got my drivers license at 18, cars with Spotify or even AUX cords etc already existed but i got an older car that had a cd player and a radio. I collected a lot of albums at the time, and was eagerly waiting for my very first time driving on my own. It was a sunny day when I got it, I had already put all my CDs in the pockets of the car, I put my sunglasses on and slid my favorite album of all time into the cd player, opened the windows and enjoyed the entire album. I am maybe old school, but it felt like a ritual and I’m not sure I would’ve had the same feeling if I had to select songs on Spotify while having my first drive. Don’t get me wrong, it is so convenient, but it feels different!
Anyways, I absolutely loved your video, your editing is just great and feels authentic and different. Thank you.
There's a huge gap in our family photos from my teenage years. The reason being that around the time I turned 13 was when we got our first digital camera, and suddenly we stopped sending off 35mm film or 110 cartridges to be developed and getting the prints and negatives in the post. From then on everything was stored on the family computer, a computer who's hard drive one day just decided to stop working, taking years of memories with it. Only a handful of photos that my dad had transferred onto CD survived.
Then there's the problem of things getting atomised. It was simple enough when it was just the one shared computer for the whole household, but as the 2000s went on we each started to get our own PCs or laptops, where we'd keep our own photos, often without any consideration given to sorting or backing up anything. So again computers break down, things get lost, and the sad thing is you don't actually know what's been lost. It's got even worse since smartphones came along... I've got a stack of old phones and tablets going back to about 2014. All of them have got hundreds of photos on, but most of them won't even boot anymore.
I'm just grateful that the photos from my early childhood were all pre-digital. I shudder when I think that I could've lost photos of my grandparents, most of whom died before I was 9. I know that while they're all jumbled together in a big mess, all those memories are safely stored in a big container under the bed.
@@bluesrocker91 I relate so much to everything you've written, and I'm so deeply sorry that you've lost so many precious memories...
The atomisation is really what makes it terrible as you pointed it perfectly. I'm thinking though, at some point, we all were posting crazy long albums on facebook after a vacation, or night out, perpetuating the simple idea of albums actually. It wasn't bad when you think about it. At least, those pictures were safe...
I also had a driver that stopped working suddenly. 5 years, completely gone. It totally broke my heart. I have 2 backups for everything now, I recommend that. But again... nothing replaces the physical pictures.
And I also have a stack of old phones, with the hope of finding something in them one day... They're all so obsolete and dead, I don't even know what I'm hoping for tbh, makes me sad.
your comment made me feel so so sad for you though, I can only imagine your pain. sending hugs. x
Some observations:
1. In worse and damper climates, owning it physically is still ephemeral and up to chance anyway. That's how countries literally disappeared without a real trace.
2. Not wanting the lay people to OWN media has ALWAYS been an ideal in organizations' minds. Books only circulated in public libraries without known availability. Rented books and tapes. Hell, any new physical media of the past sent media publishers/studios into a copyright panic, way back in the early 1920s. I dare say that, we owning anything is essentially a byproduct. It's an effect, a happenstance. We WILL have to fight to keep what we can, and maybe keep what we shouldn't as well sometimes.
In fact, this sends me down a train of thought *guided by a cynical extinctionist devil* that concludes that, maybe that's how it's meant to be. Humanity WILL explore the desire to dominate and eliminate each other time and time again, with subtle clues like these. *So instead of saving the pretense of human civilization in futility, we might as well end our cycle of reproduction and just let history erase itself, DESTROY whatever legacy we might leave behind when we go extinct*, and maybe the next cycle of intelligent life will actually have a collective agency to really save each other and save history on gut instinct.
Physical books are like jewels in my literary crown. Even after I read them, I keep them. I love used books, the way they smell, the idea of others having poured over them, others annotations..
Tangible media forever🙌🏻❤ 📚🎥
i love the new era of youtube, so many stories getting written and talked about the frustration that comes with being dominated by algorithims, in a sense, humanity itself is going through a change, looking back and cherishing the past, as well as coming back to some old costumes that were long abandoned by now
When I moved out of state, I left behind four Dragon Ash albums I found crate digging around various music stores in San Francisco and Tokyo across five years. Spotify doesn’t have them, Apple Music doesn’t have them, and a single album runs for like $400 used online. Had I known they’d be lost to time like this, I’d have kept them, but I haven’t had a CD drive in years and I figured one day they’d get onto American streaming services. It’s so frustrating to think of all the beautiful art we’re hiding from ourselves by letting third parties run the show
Making a Blu-ray compilation disk series of all my favourite youtube videos sounds awesome.
People have let themselves by convenience get suckered into a remote control society with no tangibility as a rule.
This though is an ongoing process starting with computerization that took away jobs from many clerks who had to operate mechanical calculators, slide rules and linotype machines.
It's not new. Sadly it's too easy to admire the problem and do nothing.
I feel like it's a nice metaphor for how baseless most of the inner workings of our society are.
The reason I keep books and CDs still is because of the vulnerability of all the media you stream. Using movies as an example, if my subscription to x service is over, then I can't watch that one film I like anymore. It's out of my own control what happens to my favorite things. Even the movies you BUY on Amazon aren't yours. If they were yours, you'd be able to download the file to your device, but you can't.
I used CDs all the time as a kid in the early 2010s, and then all of a sudden, I heard people saying things like "You still use CDs?" I was confused, because there was still no innovations for storing music (at this time, I didn't use streaming services). And there wasn't. It was shifted to streaming, and that's the current norm. I feel like it was pushed on us rather than the natural place the industry would've gone.
This is one of the coolest things I've seen in a while, I love the slow pace and warmth that radiates from it. I think consuming things with more intentionality is easier when sitting down with physical media, and as humans we have an innate desire to have physical objects to connect with, but that's been lost as everything becomes digital and more easily accessible. It makes me so so sad man thank you for this it's so well done and so so important
Holy cow dude. this is an incredibly well produced video. I'm wrapping my mind around setting up each of these shots, and the content is great.
Has anybody called first yet? :P
Thank you so so very much for putting forward the thought, care and attention to assemble your thoughts into this video. This is something I’ve been musing over lately, too - and you’ve given voice to some of the thoughts I’ve been struggling to articulate.
There’s just this gravity to physical media that isn’t present in its digital forms. It’s almost like we’ve hit this threshold as a society where walking into a library evokes about as much awe as a corner store. Yeah, it’s all there, and if we wanted to we could just reach out and grab it - a bag of Doritos, a Dante’s Inferno. That knowledge has become so stupidly, wonderfully accessible that we’re just totally cool with having the life’s work of centuries upon centuries of people across so many different civilizations hanging out in our pockets.
I loathe that I have to remind myself just how lucky I am every time I crack open a search engine to just casually peruse something that struck my curiosity. In a few seconds, I have access to knowledge that not even a generation ago would have only been accessible to only a select privileged few.
You’re right, I think, in that it’s not that one is somehow better than the other. It’s just that it’s become so easy to overlook the sheer magnitude of what we have with digital media. Drowning in the age of information, gasping for fresh content when the water’s pretty nice too.
Great points! Yeah I really wanted to stress that it's a blessing and a curse, and above all it's a massive change in the way we obtain information. I do worry that the DEPTH of research into things is declining, because all this incredible art and information that's accessible to us won't even leave an impact if we're overwhelmed by the options or if our curiosity is satisfied by the first result on Google. A little bit of everything all the time :-)
Thought you should know I refreshed my UA-cam feed and every time your video was there. You’re going viral, my friend! Enjoy it 😊
Kinda crazy how low ur subscriber count is, this is quality!
This is one of the best opening segments in any video I have ever seen. Rewatched the first 10 seconds like 4 times. Spectacular writing and direction
I had to watch this video twice because the first time, I didn't hear a thing you said I was too distracted with your amazing cinematogrophy and editing lol. But no regrets haha, Both watches were extremely entertaining and valuable. Back in the day, I loved collecting dvds of my favorite movies and shows. It was so nice to have that collection of media I really liked on display and at my fingertips. I'm a big comfort show watcher, and these days my shows are spread across different platforms :( I've been missing my dvd collection to say the least, haha. Luckily, I've never given up on physical books and despite moving across the world my little home library continues to grow.
Please keep making videos :) Can't wait to see what you come up with.
I totally get what you're saying. It feels like we're always trying to get more people to notice us, putting up more stuff online, and hoping for more views. But for me, running my UA-cam channel for six years now, I've always reminded myself: I'm doing this for that one person who really needs it. And I know that people who are following me are people that have real connection to what i do.
Somehow, some algorithm decided to give me your video, while I got distracted from configuring my phone to give me less distractions during work hours vs private time. I subscribed, because I like how you told the story. Thank you
I just moved house and was questioning my sanity while hauling boxes and boxes of books and DVD/blurays, but this video makes me remember why i keep those things. Just yesterday I was unpacking a box and pulled out some movies that I've been meaning to watch, and it was really nice to be reminded of them because of their physical presence in my home, and not because a manipulative algorithm pushed them in my face.
Seeing those super old books and hearing your mom talk about them was cool too. Idk just really good energy in this video, it felt like a breath of fresh air. Thanks for sharing this, I'm glad I got to see it.
I've been struggling to explain my tenacity with keeping sentimental value locked away in physical goods that I keep close to me, but to also downplay the notion of "collecting for collecting's sake." As I go on, I'm finding that curating a large library of things you *think* you'd like, and shaving off some odds and ends as you find out that you don't like a few pieces here and there, is one of those weird curation journeys through life, and maybe it's only death that you get to a point where you're actually surrounded by the things that still hold value. But I think this video puts some of that into words better than I probably could off the cuff. Really enjoyed this!
I. Really really appreciate this video. I live in a tiny apartment in a tiny room and in that tiny room I’ve made space for about 300 books. An ikea shelf, four squares by four, double deep, with books. There’s overflow too. And I can’t bring myself to get rid of them, I could never bring myself to get rid of them ALL, because of exactly what you’ve laid out here in this video. Maybe it’s the promise that I’ll read them someday, it’s like a…debt to my future or something? Or maybe it’s a memory of how I felt when I bought them, and the intrigue and wonder of the cover, or the promise of how the book will change my perspective and thereafter my life. Maybe it’s because I can brag about them whenever someone visits and they think I’m smarter than I am. For whatever reason, they’re worth keeping, to me.
This made me finally read one of the books that were just lying around in my room
I know this isn't EXACTLY what you were talking about but it is something I've been thinking about recently. I'm doing my masters in writing and literature. I have A LOT of books. I've been watching commentary on how its pretensious and wasteful etc. I have ADHD and struggle with object permanence and just general detachment when using screens. Within the last couple of years I've realised that I can't rely purely on the digitalisation of everything. It doesn't work for me. I write out my to-do list, I write out my notes by hand, I print out all my readings and so on. Due to the push for minimalism, I feel guilt about doing this. There is such an adoration for clean spaces, and little to no items, that owning them makes me feel like I'm doing something wrong.
Back to books, though. We store out books in either my study or the living room. We use bookshelves as our TV stand. I see those book shelves every single day. And every single day they remind me that there is a book I should be reading. Because of that, I DO read. I often also have the books on my kindle and the audio versions- I read a long of classics and usually they're included within the membership so it doesn't cost me much - so that I can read when I don't have the hard copy on me, listen when I can't be reading as well. But prior to having the books where I could see them, I rarely read them because I just forgot they existed. I have over 300 unread books in my kindle that I've been collecting for ages because I completely forget they exist.
I get it and if people do well with digital things, than that's great. However, I am not that person and I am so much more productive and HAPPY when I can see and hold what I need to.
This reminded me of a Cal Newport quote about him not having social media that always stuck with me: "You don't want an inflated sense of importance. You want real sense of importance made from doing real things on behalf of real people, that really matters." Too easy to forget that these days.
I'm a minimalist for practical reasons (digital nomad) but there's no part of me that could separate with my old journals, polaroids, skate decks, etc. I've got all my writing in Notion, all my pictures backed up in the cloud, and videos of all my skate clips but those aren't nearly as "important" - going to try and find more of these things. Thanks for making this video :)
and "inside joke" was perfect lmao! subbed - glad i found your channel!
I couldn't agree more. The wife and I have started visiting used bookstores and old video game stores. We're building a library of movies, games and books we like so we actually OWN them. PLUS it will help my kids develop a sense of wonder about certain pieces of media, seeing the DVD case every day and being able to hold a movie in their hands.
BTW this is exactly why piracy is so important for culture, but that is neither here nor there and I couldn't possibly advocate for it.
That "Inside" joke was fire. Matter of fact, the whole video was. New sub!
The most human/hand-made video I've watched in a very long time. Sincerely thanking you! Keep at it man, we need your kind of voice more and more these days!
How the hell do you only have 5k subs, your quality of editing and storytelling is great, great points on how what we create for, create for yourself and not for the machine.
Are you kidding, how do you not have even 1000 subs?? You're extremely underrated, remember me when you're famous
I’ve rarely been more thankful to any potency form an algorithm than I am right now watching this. Encountering this piece is a blessing, thanks for making it. It looks like I need to catch up on your previous videos.
I love books with old illustrations. I can look at them for hours.
Thankyou for creating this video essay. I feel so greatful that there are people out there sharing other ways of being in the world.
I love how you explored the value of stuff and the trend towards subscription + content creation being really prescribed.
Thanks for being Ernest.
With gratitude
Oh wow. From the shots to the script, I just loved this. Great work!
Recently got back into reading physical books last month and my local library has been such a blessing for this experience. It's often impossibe to grasp the overflowing stream of art and knowledge we've been given access to digitally, on the daily. What a time to be alive!
Man, you have talent, from the opening, to your arguments, counter arguments, discussion, all the way to your conclusion, this video felt like a text I had to write in my french classes (french canadian here, hi), but somehow this was fun, this was really fun to watch. Also I love the irony (is it irony? I'm not sure) of you holding your phone at the end
ugh!! the editing!! it's so good! the floor of nuance!! in love & subbed
I love the pace of this Ted, you are a great conversationalist and story teller. You’re showing not telling me through some fast passed stick figure animation about materialism, media or what have you… this is real, as real as you can get through a UA-cam video ;). I love that you don’t have a neat and tidy conclusion that we like to cling to - instead you make us feel something deeper and leave us to reflect on our relationship to the things we consume, their value and the way in which we consume them. I’m glad you made this, people like you that approach these conversations with care, consideration and personal voice without it being naive or imposing is what is needed to slowly wake us up from the slumber we’re in and the responsibility and care we owe to each other and our planet :)
I collect both vinyls and books I love. I feel like the ritual of taking it out of the shelves, dusting it etc actually keeps me sane.
You put into words a feeling I've had for a while! The objects we surround ourselves with are important, and matter for how we experience the world. Lovely video.
Hey, my endless scrolling actually led me to something really good! The paradox is that without the endless scrolling I would've never found this video (that kind of touches on the subject)
I love physical media. Whether it be books, vinyl records, watches, shoes, video games and different consoles. The act of picking it up and using it is a special feeling you can get anywhere else
i think there’s real potential for this style of video essay/documentary for yt this was really well done!
damn dude, wow. This genuinely moved me in a way I didn't expect. I was about halfway through, really truly engrossed and only then did I look at the view count and saw 54k views??? The amount of genuine love and care, and intention you've put into this video is incredible. I recently moved into my own flat with my partner and something I really, wish I could do is spend less time playing games and watching UA-cam and actually filling my life with meaningful things. Things made with intention and love, to look good and have care and thought put into it. Made not to just exist and fill a need, but to really tell a story and have meaning. Thanks for this man, truly an amazing video.
this made me really emotional and gave a lot of food for thought. thank you for your art, and for making me think about how i want to create and store the art i make, and hold onto the art of others. really appreciate this :) keep going
This video is a beautiful piece. The shots are fun and inventive, the writing is concise, and that final interview is personal in a way that no one else could do. Thanks.
Awesome video! I've talked about this idea with some of my family a couple months ago, really like your discussion of it too. Really enjoyed your presentation of it too, your skill as a filmmaker shows! Thanks for the great video Ted!
I love coming across a video like this, where it's so apparent how much thought and effort went into it. Well done! I'm glad it's getting attention. I actually just watched that Jack Conte talk (twice) last week and was nodding my head the old time. Anyway, keep it up, Ted!
what a beautiful hidden gem of a video.
loved every second of it. the shots, the framing, the script, the subject matter, everything.
Some of your turns of phrase are so beautiful. 'We only have one glimpse into everything that was ever written'. Damn.
What an incredible piece of art this video is. The variety of shots, the feelings, this video creates is just unbelievable. Somehow the different textures of the materials seen in every shot brings depth. For me it's the handwritten notes and the conversation with your mother that feel like the viewer is part of, that make this video so special. Your way of telling a story and visualizing it in your own great way made a lot of thoughts come up while and after watching.
It would be a shame if this video remains only in a digital form while describing the importance of physical items.
Keen your work up, I think there are a lot of people enjoying your art!
I love how much information I am able to process now vs. in the before internet times. It took a whole lot of stumbling to figure it out. It triggered plenty of anxiety attacks. The upside of consuming media now is that I'm able to connect with the information in a deeper way. But, I'm not reading books anymore. I used to consume them. Loved the video essay!
I loved SO much about this video! Instantly subscribed. I appreciated how you brought nuance to the conversation, how you talked about the impact that this has on art, and how you ended the video with hope - that we can create a better future (even though we might not know how to do that yet!) I also really appreciated that you mentioned some possible pieces of the solution, like Patreon, which make creators less disposable, and supports them so that they can create content more independent of the algorithm. I think another part of the solution could be creators who want to create high quality art coming together, building community with each other, and putting our heads together to come up with more solutions.
The quality of this video got me shooked, would love to see more videos in the future!
this is absolutely GORGEOUS! i am so baffled this doesnt have more views. really incredible work. this got out a lot of things ive been thinking recently about my own decluttering, and own book collection. need to get a dvd player so i can watch all my star trek TOS dvds again. (i got them in the year of our lord 2022, cause i was tired of streaming and pirating it, and it was important enough to own. and theyve served me well.) watched this video while drawing and had a great time, but one of these days i ought to rewatch so i can look at all the visuals. its going in my calming videos to watch while upset playlist. again, great great work!
Amazing video. The algorithm has brought me this many times, and from the first time on I saved it in my watch later. Just the thumbnail and title gave an impression of something special so I saved it for a good moment. Now finally watching and it’s succeeded all expectations.
this was such an awesome video. scattered enough to keep my attention peaked the whole time, but concise enough to have solid takeaways. amazing job dude
Just subscribed but honestly you deserve way more subscribers. I loved your editing style, storytelling, and chill vibe. The interview with your Mom was sweet, I hope you do more interviews in the future. Can’t wait to see more videos from this channel. :)
Loved this video. Its a feeling i think many of us are having who grew up with physical media. The conversation with your mom at tthe end was so beautiful
I haven't seen anyone else mention it so I have to: your cinematography is so good, I love the way you presented this subject!!!
thoroughly enjoyed this!!!! my parents never understood why i preferred to hoard stacks of books rather than downloading them on kindle but there’s something so special about holding something in your hands and watching it wear down over time from loving it so much. i also contemplate selling my records from time to time since most of my listening is via spotify but i imagine a world where streaming is obsolete and i can’t access my favorite albums anymore and it makes me super anxious. i’ll take a little clutter signifying what you love over minimalism any day
(anyways i’ve gotta stop developing hehe giggling kicking my feet crushes on youtubers this can’t be healthy)
I think the very end of this video is a huge lesson to simply ask your older family about potential heirlooms, their lives, their start with their partner, how things were or have changed, what their favorite thing to do growing up was. Anything that is part of someone's own important journey and life that we tend to lose as time goes on. When this type of conversation happens with my remaining grandparents I can tell each party involved is cherishing that passing of knowledge. Things I can tell my kid about their Great Grandparents and times gone by.
Also wonderful job with this video.
I got to the end and was ITCHING to comment and say thank you and rave about all the little moments of creativity in your filmmaking, but then I got to the credits and now all I can think about is "bookshelf made in procreate". Brilliant. Front to back this is a treasure, and I will keep it on my digital bookshelf (my favourites folder) forever with the intention of coming back to re-watch it some day. (Even though I have rarely ever gone back to re-watch videos in my favourites folder). There's something special to me about the moment of deciding to save something digital, akin to putting a book on a shelf. In both cases I'm affirming that some part of this *thing* spoke to me and I want to keep it so it doesn't get drowned out by the noise.
I really enjoyed this video, the style, the cinematography and how relaxed yet bitter sweet the atmosphere felt. I especially like your thumbnail its super charming! I'll definitely stick around
this is the first video of yours i’ve watched and as a media arts major, i love your editing style so much.
GAHHDAHHMM, Thanks for the upload mate, loved the editing and the cinematography. (The white bookshelf looks cool, brown even cooler), subscribed
Love this type of content! It’s really something I been into having small collections of real tangible things after being so into minimalism
that INSIDE joke was top tier ngl
I don’t know you, and I just saw your channel, but I just wanted to thank you for this video and say congratulations on the success of it. I scrolled your channel and see you’ve been posting for 12 years… and besides this I don’t think o saw a single video with 1k+ views. Algorithms are weird and the directions life can take us can come out of nowhere but I hope this video is a breakout moment for you and it leads to something life changing. Best of luck, don’t stop!
If you ever try to find out of print editions, you’ll soon realize the benefits of digital storage. Much easier to preserve and access digital things than something only in a university library two states away.
This is so nice and so well done. The ending I resonate with, I have film positives from my grandpas time in the airforce. I shoot film myself and always hold onto my negatives. I feel so grateful I can go and look at the photos he was taking at my age around the world. Physical media should absolutely be held onto and preserved by families imo
The amount of effort and thought put into this is inspiring.
These are considerations that must be made