Living Under a Rock

Do I live under a rock?

What sparked this question to myself was that recently I rented a movie from Redbox.  I was going after a very specific movie so there was no perusing the catalog.  I was just going in for the kill. It had been quite a while since I had rented a movie.  Maybe a year?  After paying for my rental, I had the receipt sent to my email address from the machine.  Along with the email containing the receipt, they also sent me an email welcoming me to Redbox since I had never used that email address before with them.  It included  a code to use next time for a free rental.  This prompted me to look through their catalog on my phone to find a potential "date night" movie that my wife and I could watch together.

What I found was a huge list of movies that I had never heard of, didn't recognize, and was completely unfamiliar with.  That's a relatively new development for me.  Does anyone else have this issue?  I was stumped and had no clue as to where to even start to choose a movie.

Back in the day, this would have never happened to me.  I would have seen previews from other movies that I had rented or watched in the theater.  I would have seen commercials on broadcast television about upcoming movies.  I would have heard about movies from co-workers and friends.  So, what's different now?

We have a Roku box, a Netflix subscription, small children, and a moral compass.  The combination of these apparently equals a complete ignorance of current entertainment choices.

We don't watch broadcast television for a few reasons.

1. There isn't really anything appropriate for our small children to see that also interests Jodi and me.
2. The shows the children like can be seen on Netflix on demand.
3. Netflix has multiple seasons of most TV series shows that keep me and Jodi entertained for months due to our limited window to watch.

Since Netflix keeps us entertained, we don't ever rent movies any more nor do we ever consider watching one in theaters.  So, we have essentially cut out every available outlet where we would normally be subject to receiving exposure to movie trailers or advertising.

To be quite honest, the only news I get is when I search for news on Google which I do a couple times a week just to keep in touch with what is happening politically.

I find it interesting that with these new media tools developed by technology and entertainment innovations, I have actually become less solicited, less aware, and less informed.  Hmm.

Photo credit: Julie Dawn Fox @ juliedawnfox.com

Posted in: autobiography,family,movie,observation,technology