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This baffler essay on streaming services, taste, and algorithmic recommendations
lots of gems it’s hard to isolate one!!! But it made me think of why I like this place and getting real recs and discovering things Some include “The problem is that subscribing to niche film services and hunting down bird-centric romances on YouTube are the acts of a self-selecting group—it takes money or effort or both. This ghettoizes lovers of the strange into a “fandom,” that most pejorative of internet taxonomies. Classifying love as fandom damns the most affecting and holy of reactions to art—recognizing yourself in others—into just another mode of material consumption. It turns lovers into shoppers and then sells them Funko Pop figurines of John Cassavetes. It turns connection into loneliness.” “He describes how sailors used to navigate by looking at Venus, clearly visible even by day. This planet is still there. It hasn’t exploded. It’s still in the same relative position in the sky at the same time. But according to Davis, with the advents of the astrolabe, more accurate sea charting, and satellite GPS systems, humans can no longer see it. As far as collective perception goes, if we don’t use something, it doesn’t exist.”
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@pissbowling
Apr 26, 2024
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@beetroot
“Your queue of DVDs had been aspirational: it was for connecting with who you wanted to be. Streaming was for forgetting who you really were.” We now pay a monthly fee to be told what to watch. Most of which is shite. The gems are disappearing and no one cares. At least with Spotify they don’t select the songs that are available on the platform for a limited time. Imagine if it was like that lol 😂 There’s no collective watching now as everything comes out all at once and everyone goes on their phones whilst watching a film. Everyone is so ok with it as well. Convenience is the killer and it’s hard to turn back from convenience. Cool essay, I like 👍
Apr 26, 2024
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@steelyfan1998
Broooo I’m astrolabed out. Totally cooked
Apr 26, 2024
1

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