Exactly! Go outside, take a walk, find a lover.

I bet some people will think this comment is unduly snarky. But if you take the time to step back a moment and think about it, it really is pretty good advice.

Or pirate away. TV is so 1990s.

I will probably just find the show I want to watch through usenet or something. Outside is a pretty dangerous place, I prefer digital worlds where I can respawn if I die.

/s

Well, in a past career I worked in film/TV. I needed them. This is an industry like any other. It employs lots of people. Things like blackouts and, in my day, writers strikes impact the livelihoods of a great many.

Now facebook, that is pure luxury that we can all do without. And don't get me started on air travel. Get out and walk. Take a train.

As a software engineer who has to have a facebook for API integrations and other bullshit. Facebook is not pure luxury. Wish I could do my job without having to have an account but it is not possible.

I don't think you want to compare industries and determine the importance by the number of workers.

Facebook is trying to be a content platform for everything. If it had it's way, it would be YouTube++. To be locked out of YouTube these days would be pretty bad if you wanted to be a vlogger. And Air Travel is pretty critical for remote towns in America. Train isn't really competitive for cross america travel in terms of time even if we have to put up with all the security theater.

Read the post again. Take it a little less literally. Do you really thing that I meant that people should literally walk instead of flying? I was saying that the OP's description of the film/TV industry as a "luxury" and that people should "get outside" was just as ridiculous as my description of Facebook or air travel. This is a tech forum. I was illustrating the point by re-telling the narrative in terms more understood to this crowd, with the hope that doing so would create some empathy in the minds of readers. But of course this is HN where metaphor is too complex a concept.

For the Sheldon out there: When you see someone equate two wildly different things, such as FLYING and WALKING, that is code for not literal and you should examine the wording in context. There is probably another meaning, one often opposite to that literally described by the text. And if you don't understand what I mean by "Sheldons" then I give up.

Wow, that was too much typing. It is almost like metaphor allow us to express complex ideas with far fewer words than literal description of the facts. I wonder if anyone else has discovered this trick?

Re-reading and honestly. I just don't think your response to thread OP was clear in the way you have imagined it.

You mention walking vs flying as an appeal to extremes, but you dropped in trains right after. That takes away from your point at the critical moment. And your Facebook as a luxury comparison just doesn't really get your point across. It's not like you told me to sell my children to fix my financial troubles.

As the OP for this thread I have nothing against the film/TV industry. There are a zillion sources of video content out there. No one actually needs HBO or Cinemax. For those who want to sit and watch TV there's more other content available than they can get through in a lifetime.

Why do you distinguish between people working for the film industry and people working dor Facebook?

I can understand facebook, but air travel? You musn't be of the USA. A train from Seattle to New York costs $350 and takes at least 3 days and there is only one carrier - Amtrak. A flight is $200 or less, and takes 6 hours.

Or a boat? Air travel is pretty necessary for going across the oceans these days. I don't really understand that as being a luxury compared to watching television.