>The more interesting question, though, is whether or not frictionless access to near-infinite vaults of that tailored entertainment actually makes your quality of life better.
That's the thing - "quality of life" is an entirely subjective measure, one which both of us are tailoring to fit a predetermined outcome.
But even if one dismisses the value of access to media to quality of life, the degree to which online services (any service, including streaming media) democratize that access compared to the limitations of physical media and gatekept broadcasts (VCRs didn't even come around until the late 1970s) improved quality of life substantially. That some or much of that media is pure entertainment is less relevant to my argument than the paradigm shift it represents.
I mean, to invoke the trope, you have a device you can fit in your pocket which allows you access to almost the entirety of humanity's cultural and intellectual output, a GPS system, a camera, a radio, a compass, a calculator, it can answer questions, it can order food, it can allow you to communicate with people around the world without long-distance fees. From the point of view of the 1970s, that's literally something out of Star Trek. That seems like an objective improvement to quality of life in the same way that the printing press, internal combustion engine and indoor toilets were.
> But kids in that era would play together in the streets, and families had closer bonds.
Kids don't play in the streets anymore but they still play - my niece and nephew have a huge backyard they play in, and my nephew also makes games for his friends on Roblox. To me, kids today have richer and more fulfilling lives than I did, stuck in my living room watching TV and reading old library books.
Also, I would argue that due to the advancement of progressive ideals allowing certain demographics to exist more openly than society would have allowed in the 1970s, some familial bonds are stronger now than then. Maybe if you're a white Christian conservative male things seem to have gone downhill, but things seem to be looking up for everyone else.
And there would have been social media junkies and helicopter parents using it to make their lives worse, too. I doubt it would have been used significantly differently back then.
>But even if one dismisses the value of access to media to quality of life, the degree to which online services (any service, including streaming media) democratize that access compared to the limitations of physical media and gatekept broadcasts
I wasn't alive for the introduction of VHS, but was for the shift from tape to DVD to torrents to Netflix. The amount of media consumed increased dramatically one physical media died, and even that small amount of exercise and social interaction walking around blockbuster and thanking the guy behind the counter has been squeezed out in the name of efficient distribution.
>That seems like an objective improvement to quality of life in the same way that the printing press, internal combustion engine and indoor toilets were.
And yet I literally threw mine away and don't miss it. It was nothing but a distraction that prevented me from doing things I needed to do.
>my niece and nephew have a huge backyard they play in, and my nephew also makes games for his friends on Roblox
That sounds like my wife's upbringing in South Africa. Hardly an ideal to emulate.
>white Christian conservative male Black families have been disintegrating even faster.
Would they? Boomers are famous for being luddites, and a growing minority of millennials now would be more than happy to toss their smartphones if it didn't mean being pushed to the outer of all their social groups.
>Streaming media with access to an entire library of movies and television shows is qualitatively better than three analog tv channels and whatever happens to be showing at the movie theater at the time.
I agree, Netflix has a much better range than the old technology, it is more convenient and the picture/audio quality is fantastic. The more interesting question, though, is whether or not frictionless access to near-infinite vaults of that tailored entertainment actually makes your quality of life better.
>The 70's were some of the most cynical and violent years in recent American history.
I never said it wasn't violent (nor did I say American, in fact!). But kids in that era would play together in the streets, and families had closer bonds.