Lately, I’ve been seeing some of my favorite music artists selling LPs on their websites, and I have to say, it takes me back to the day when I was a 12-year-old boy lying on my bedroom floor, listening to an album I purchased with my allowance at Kmart. I placed both speakers by my ears and got lost in the music while reading the lyrics in the liner notes. I’m half-tempted to buy a record player and go back to those days.
In the last two years, I’ve noticed a trend in my book sales in favor of paperbacks. I have always sold more ebooks than paperbacks. Neither trend bothers me. Whatever medium readers choose to consume my books in is fine by me. But it is hard not to notice that people are choosing paperbacks again. I’m not as tempted to join that trend as I am to jump back into LPs because I don’t have room for them. And I actually prefer ebooks. But I understand the attraction of holding a physical copy.
I have a friend I’ve been watching movies with lately on DVD. I haven’t consumed movies that way in many years. I had forgotten about the deleted scenes, alternate endings and extra content you can find in the menu. As somebody who has been streaming movies and TV programs for years, I am often frustrated by the fact that a movie I want to watch has disappeared for one reason or another. Owning a physical copy certainly makes sense. So recently, I walked into a Goodwill and purchased a dozen movies for $.99 each and that will keep my friend and me busy for three months.
We tend to be gravitating back toward the old ways. Back toward the tangible. Is that a pushback against a throwaway culture?
Maybe we are tired of that.
I wonder if our collective return to the tangible is a search for something more than just nostalgia. There’s a certain comfort in holding a book, in hearing the crackle of a vinyl record or in owning a movie you can pull off the shelf. It's a return to a slower, more deliberate way of enjoying the things we love.
Perhaps this shift speaks to a deeper desire for connection and authenticity in an increasingly digital world. Embracing these older mediums requires and invites more deliberate actions – flipping LPs from one side to the next, reading liner notes, turning pages, navigating DVD menus – helping us slow down and savor them. In a world that often values speed and convenience, choosing the tangible might just be our quiet rebellion – a way to hold onto what truly matters.
