Fading Industries

In these past few chapters, Gomez discusses how so many industries and our generation have changed given how “digital” we are becoming. With the music industry losing its format, people are more prone to just downloading their music as opposed to buying CDs its previous format. With the invention of DVR, people are less prone to watch live TV or commercials now that they have the option to fast forward through them.  And then less people rent movies or go to movie theatres because of movie streaming services such as Netflix. We have become “generation download” as Gomez described it.

            Though I agree that how we get our entertainment has certainly changed, based off our class discussions, I don’t think the old ways have necessarily “died” or completely faded out as Gomez seems to think. Despite the fact that apparently movie attendance has dropped, most of my peers still very much go to the movies. Even with DVR and Netflix, we still watch live television with commercials. And though most of us do prefer to buy our music from iTunes or use Spotify, some of us still buy CDs or even vinyl, which seems to be making a comeback.

            Personally, I feel as if the movie theatre business will never die despite it’s dropping attendance rate because going to the movies is partially about the experience, which is something you can’t get from streaming movies on your laptop. Watching live cable TV, I also think won’t necessarily fade out any time soon, even though with Netflix and Hulu presenting a more convenient alternative, mainly because people are always going to buy TVs and not everyone is going to want to watch just DVDs or what have you. Plus with these streaming services, you only have a limited selection of movies and TV shows that change from month to month. CDs, however, I do believe will eventually fade out in the same way cassettes did mainly due to the ultimate convenience, affordability, and portability of the iPod and downloadable music in general.