conveniently inconvenient
Last year I took a class at my local University that focused on the 19th-20th century interest in machines. How some people during that time had started to suggest that life, whether a duck, a fish, or a human could be fully explained through mechanisms. It was at this point that my teacher had shown us a picture of laptop that supposedly worked off of winding a key ( I think it was a key, it might had been aesthetic). It was at the moment that the teacher asked us about the inconvenience of this laptop and things of that nature.
I had myself been toiling with the idea of cutting down my digital consumption at the time (another possible topic for future consideration). When I learnt that I had been spending nearly 5 hours a day on my phone (including GPS, checking emails, Youtube, etc), that not including watching shows on my T.V or gaming, it shook me a little. expanding that upwards (with of course some assumptions that may be wrong), 5 hrs x 7 days = 35 hrs. That's a week's worth of work. So I was doing a bit of research in the benefits of a dumbphone, or using apps to help reduce my screentime.
The discussion I had with that teacher focused on "how inconvenience is a good thing." A simple example of this would be buying a coffee. It could be more convenient to buy a coffee at your local coffee shop and pay a bit more, then make the coffee at home and make sure your travel mug is clean and that you had coffee in the first place to brew it. In the long run the second option would, normally, be cheaper. Yet, there is extra work. Which in some cases can seem daunting.
The thought of "how inconvenience is a good thing" kept coming up in places. One was a Youtuber by the name of MecklesFrog (please go check them out). They had posted a video about this topic. It seemed to really resonate with people, the video becoming quite a big hit for them. They had talked about "losing something through convenience." This really hit me. An example that they use is the trip to the video store. Which I will recount in my own way.
I used to watch VHS tapes all the time at my house when I was little. I remember watching and rewatching Space Jam every Saturday because I was looney for the looney tunes at the time. To this day my dad will not watch the movie, which I totally get because I've babysitted a kid who made me watch the Jim Carrey "How the Grinch stole Christmas" on repeat in the middle of July. Movies fascinated me for hours when I was young. Back then I didn't know why, but now I believed it was the novelty of each movie. Every film seemed so unique in their themes, effects, lines, etc. When you're young everything is novel.
About once a week or biweekly, we would go to the local video rental store to rent some dvds. As I'm sure everyone on Earth who used to do this will tell you, it was a special moment. The excitement of getting into the car to drive 10 minutes to the store, and the rekindled excitement of entering the store. The video store also served ice cream, which was a treat every once in a while. I remember going into that small room with rows upon rows of new and classic movies. To the left, when you first entered, was the 'new' section mixed in with the 'animated children' section. The middle row -- I always avoided because I was a scaredy cat -- was the horror section. Just the covers sent chills up my small child spine. But I have fond memories of spending probably a total of 35 minutes to go, pick out 2-3 dvds, and bring them home to watch one of them that night. It was a trip, it was an adventure.
Disclaimer: I know a lot has been said on streaming services, so I want to say I believe there's a place for them. But, I also want to say I believe that they should be used wisely. People paying the monthly subscriptions for 4-5 different services might not be the best idea. You might be using those subscriptions effectively, but most likely not. So I do enjoy streaming, but they should not be just given money and forgotten (because they will renew automatically whether you're using them or not).
Turning to streaming services (music or video), I get mostly the opposite feeling. I have come to be annoyed, and even dread surfing through the Netflix, Disney+, or Amazon Prime catalogues. They have lost that sort of spark of fun that running to a local rental store held. Going to the rental store was inconvenient, so when we went we had to make the most out of it. With streaming services, there is convenience. Which can be a nice thing, but also make us less intentional. Intentionality is important.
Since this class, and the Youtube video, I have been trying to implement intentionally inconvenient things into my life. I have switched from Apple music to downloading music onto my laptop and exporting it onto an old ipod. I have been slowly collecting dvd's that I enjoy. A curated catalogue of my favourites. I guess this can be seen as counter-culture stuff. I see it as "doing what's best for me." If that's owning secondhand items that I actually own and use everyday, then that's great.
I have also started collecting secondhand cd's to put in my car. Which I have been really enjoying probably the most. I never before listened to a whole album, I always picked certain ones from this album and certain ones from that album. I have also come to terms that due to advancements in technologies, years from now my new car might not have a cd player in it. But that's for future me to deal with. I will jam out with what I have and love it for as long as I can.