One disadvantage of the digital revolution

When I was in college, you could tell what sort of music someone was in to by browsing their CD and/or cassette collection.  In the '70s and before, you could take a glance at someone's record collection.  And from that, get a sense of their compatibility -- for one characteristic, at least.

Nowadays you can't do that:  someone would have to unlock their phone (or hand you their mp3 player), and you'd have to browse through all the listings.

And the further difficulty is that the file structure is often nested -- meaning that you can't just scroll straight through.  Whereas with albums on a shelf, you just at the top left and work your way though.

It's becoming that way with movies, too:  you used to be able to see what movies people liked enough to buy (rather than rent) on videotape -- and later, on DVD.  But with streaming, you can't "see" people's favorite movies.

It's a shame.


--GG