0xen 🎩 on Farcaster

0xen 🎩 pfp

Blockbuster nostalgia is weird. They had the worst selection, worst prices, terrible vibes and their late fees could legitimately bankrupt you. Back in the day they were universally hated, you went there if you had to. F tier experience. Local mom and pops were slightly better but it's rare that people actually hung out at one of thee kinds of places unless you knew an employee. Big cities had some exceptions (I Luv Video in Austin) but mostly 90s style video rental places going away is fine and dandy.

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matthewb pfp

most nostalgia of this nature is simply longing for being the (much) younger person you were at the time of your memory

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Muhammad Ali pfp

Exactly! Blockbuster nostalgia is mostly Stockholm Syndrome in VHS form. We didn't love it we just didn’t have options.

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tyler ↑ pfp

IIRC Blockbuster was quite a bit more expensive to begin with; too bougie for me except as a last resort. Our mom & pop store was great, and right next to where my mom worked so we went there pretty often (to check out the same movies over and over). The nostalgia includes the anticipation, the build up and the jackpot-like feeling of finding the movie you were hoping to see. It doesn’t include the massive letdown of everything good being checked out and going home empty handed and looking for new plans. Watching movies (or shows or blooper videos or sports or whatever) is a *far* better experience now than then. But given that most content is 1) abundant and 2) on-demand, there are extremely few opportunities for the emotional high of the video store rental. Trying to think of a comparable non-content example…

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kripcat.eth pfp

I dunno. There’s something to be said for having less choice.

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Schmidtiest.eth 🎩 pfp

Schmidtiest.eth 🎩

@schmidtiest.eth

I worked at Hollywood Video for like 2 years back in like 07/08. Crazy times.

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MJC pfp

people are nostalgic for a few things - tactile experience - discrete decision set (none of the decision paralysis of the online platforms)

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justin.ahn.eth pfp

you ever use the dvd service they launched in their twilight years to try to suddenly catch up with netflix? i'm sure they made no money off it as it had no late fees and you could return discs whenever by just dropping it off at one of their retail stores, all at like half the price of the netflix subscription didn't feel any remorse keeping dvds for months while watching them go under 🤣

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Patricia Lee pfp

@patriciaxlee.eth

The generation before Blockbusters was nostalgic for drive in movies. But nobody would trade Netflix now for Blockbusters and drive ins. Only for occasional memory lane trips. Netflix will eventually have its own sweet nostalgia of sitting in living rooms and feeling cozy. I just wonder what will inevitably replace it. I used to sell Girl Scout cookies in front of our local Blockbusters with my troop. Now I hear the Girl Scouts are selling via mobile apps. Her kids will experience some new thing that they in turn get to feel nostalgic for. What she likely wants more than her kids experiencing it is simply to feel like a kid again herself.

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Steve Pederzani pfp

Steve Pederzani

They had both of the Bomberman games for the 64 I wanted to play regularly though so they were absolutely based in my town. 🤓

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masky pfp

Video stores are cool-just not Blockbuster. They were terrible

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FinnTec.eth 🎩 pfp

FinnTec.eth 🎩

I remember when they stopped letting me borrow shit because they claimed that I owed them like $1k in late fees 🤣

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Toasterboyz pfp

@toasterboyz.eth

I remember getting the neverending story on VHS from the local mom and pop and the tape breaking. That story never ended for me

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qt pfp

Yeah this is more just nostalgia for collective decision making around content and spending time with your family. Like most millennial coded nostalgia, it's putrid and boring.

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Thomas pfp

@aviationdoctor.eth

Rosy retrospection

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Garrett pfp

people yearn for simpler times more than ever

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Stuart pfp

Our local VHS rental shop Rainy Day Records was in the same parking lot as blockbuster. They were way cheaper, much kinder late fees if any, and had a huge selection of random international films, kung fu, sections for good directors films, anime, all the good stuff. Also of course, records and skateboard stuff, and incense.

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Cool Beans 🌞 pfp

Cool Beans 🌞

I never had a bad experience at my local Blockbuster 🤷‍♂️

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Hamed pfp

So true 😂 Blockbuster was like the fast food of movie nights, bland, overpriced, and somehow always out of the movie you came for. Nostalgia really got people romanticizing trauma 💀🍿

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helladj pfp

Idk about worst selection - plus I was like 7 yrs old

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