First, let me say I'm so glad I discovered this site!
I gave up going to movie theatres years ago because, as much as I enjoy movies and seeing them on the big screen, I got tired of the seat kickers, the fidgeters, the slurpers, the yakkers, the cell phone-a-holics, the crunchers and lip smackers and all the rest. I also worried that the minute I shifted in my seat or sipped my drink I was behaving just as badly.
It may not be the big screen, but I enjoy watching films at home, comfortably seated on my sofa (instead of a having to wrestle with my neighbours for control of the armrest) adequate quantities of my favourite drinks and snacks readily at-hand (and not ludicrously over-priced) and with surround sound I even have some of the movie-theatre experience.
When I was a kid, I listened to music on AM radio. We had to put up with commercials after every second song, and those disc jockeys who thought their brainless patter was more entertaining than, say, the first guitar chords of Stairway to Heaven or the last few minutes of Layla. Today, through a couple of sources, I have access to commercial-free music with no brainless DJ patter. Better yet, I have a choice of stations whose styles cater to my tastes. I am old enough to remember that awful year when every AM radio station played Sugar, Sugar at least once every half hour. Anyone who wants to trace the beginning of the end of AM radio should start their research at that moment in history.
Is it any surprise, then, that we are so willing to accept new technologies that allow us to forego all the unwanted crap and get what we want? I do worry what will happen to the young people of today who won't know the true meaning of patience and tolerance because they won't have those sorts of experiences. I suppose they'll be able to complain, when they get to my age, about the days when all we had was dial-up.
Like Michael, I wonder where all this is leading. It took me two years to find your web-site in that ever-expanding sea of flotsam and jetsam on the Internet. How difficult will it be, in the future, to find good movies, books, etc.?
Perhaps it will come full circle -- we'll rely on ads on television, radio and newspapers.

Posted by: RGP on January 12, 2006 4:32 PM