I went my local general store. It used to have a redbox: a vending machine for movie cd’s

I miss Redbox. This is partly childhood nostalgia.

But also, there was no (for the most part) algorithm. The latest hits were on a poster on the side, so a handful of people could browser at once. There was no endless scrolling. There was a shitty screen that made scrolling and searching unpleasant. You got in and got out. The price was great.

CD’s had no buffering. All the stupid ads in the beginning (they tried to replicate the movie-going experience) could be easily skipped.

Streaming services these days are atrocious. Ads everywhere. Declining content quality. Recommendations that are designed more to addict than to entertain. And each streaming service guards its content jealously. Now you need multiple services to watch everything.