Physical Media, the Holidays, and the Human Touch
A holiday observation that blends well with my physical-media love
Earlier today, my nephew told me that he wanted his dad (or Santa) to get him signatures from a bunch of his favorite YouTubers. It was an interesting thing to hear — I’ve never really heard from said nephew that he’s into anything like that…although he does collect Pokémon cards, so obviously there’s a collector’s mindset in there somewhere.
He was prompted to this revelation by the fact that my daughters had asked me to pay for them to get 8x10 pictures signed by a voice actor from one of their favorite shows. As someone who collects lots of oddities, rarities, and signed crap, I certainly get the appeal.
What is more surprising, I think, is the idea that my nephew would be interested. Or, speaking more broadly, that kids that age would be interested if they weren’t raised by a crazy person who hoards hundreds of DVDs, Blu-rays, and VHS tapes in the house.
My brother-in-law — the kid’s father — works in computers, and his basic philosophy seems to be that if you can’t stream it, it isn’t worth watching. We haven’t talked about it much, but I very much suspect that he views the extensive physical library that my wife and I have as an oddity. I wouldn’t have expected his kid, then, to value something like a scrap of paper signed by “PrestonPlayz” as something especially valuable.
And really, none of this is a judgment on my nephew or brother-in-law. I just tend to assume that a lot of the odd things that I collect — movie props, signed photos, and other strange rarities — have much value to the younger generation, for whom everything has always been downloadable. I sometimes find myself buying something just to preserve it, with no real interest in owning it myself but also fear that something important might simply cease to exist if it goes to the wrong person and becomes lost or forgotten.
But with my kids, and my nephew, I’m seeing that even the younger generation sees the value in some of these things. They want to have something that has been actually in contact with their heroes. Last year, I got Samantha a Cameo by one of her favorite voice actors, and it was the thing she liked the most that birthday. Both she and Charlotte are excited about a limited-run, signed poster I got them.
Another keen example was when one of Samantha’s friends came over a while back. Revealing that her favorite-ever show was Supernatural, she was delighted when I showed her pictures of me in Baby (the show’s hero car) and gave her a small gift from a Supernatural press kit. That it was a cheap, little thing didn’t matter — she had something from Supernatural!
These are, for the most part, still kids who don’t give a fig about things like DVDs and VHS tapes. They aren’t old enough to have the sense of impermanence that a digital life offers. This isn’t about me instilling the idea that “physical media is king” in my kids. Rather, it seems like there’s something natural about wanting to connect on a tangible, intimate level with the things you love — even if you’re young enough to have never known a world without iPads.
This isn’t meant to be condescending or nostalgic. As much as anything, it’s just about my own surprise that this particular aspect of collector/fan culture is carrying on to the next generation.
There’s a new episode of Emerald City Video coming this week, in which Zach and I dig a little deeper into my manifesto about how it’s really corporate greed and right-wing FOMO that’s driving the criticisms of Bluesky as an “echo chamber.” You can look forward to that chat, hopefully in the first half of the week. I also plan to look at something that’s a little more niche and likely to be one of my less-popular posts — but as long as I’m making functionally no money here, I get to write about what I want.
In the meantime, I will continue to extend the ECV Analog membership offer — you can get two books and a movie for $50, with $20 going to a good cause — through the end of next week, after someone asked me if I was willing to let them sign up on December 5th. So let’s say the offer ends on December 8th. You can get all the details here.