Why Everyone's Falling Back in Love With Physical Media
VHS tapes, CDs, magazines, books and a whole lot of nostalgia.
Remember when Friday nights meant wandering the aisles of Video Ezy, carefully choosing the movie that would define your weekend? Or lining up at Sanity to sample the latest album, headphones firmly glued to your ears? Turns out, a lot of us miss it, and are making sure it comes back.
In an era where everything is available instantly (and honestly, too much is available instantly), the craving for physical media is real. Vinyls, CDs, DVDs, VHS tapes, magazines, even good old paperbacks — they're all having a moment. And it's not just for the aesthetic Instagram shelfie (although, not gonna lie, they look great).
Digital fatigue is setting in hard. We're chronically online, our attention spans have shrunk to a tragic 8.25 seconds, and choosing something to watch feels like a full-time job. It's no wonder people are opting out of the endless scroll and opting in to the simple joy of owning a thing you can actually hold.
Vinyl was the first to make its comeback. Since COVID hit, it’s been on a steady rise, so much so that today it’s almost weird for an artist not to release an album on vinyl.
At first, it was about the retro sound and vintage vibes, but now it’s about so much more: the artwork, the limited editions, the coloured pressings, it’s a whole experience. Streaming can’t give you that.
And it's not just music. "BookTok" blew up, and suddenly paperbacks are the hottest thing again. Beyond the dopamine hit of finishing a real book, there's something powerful about owning a physical copy, especially in a world where deleting or censoring digital media is just a few clicks away. When everything feels a bit unstable, the humble paperback is starting to look like a pretty solid investment. Handmaid tale added to cart!
Ownership is another big deal. Streaming is easy until your favourite show vanishes because of a licensing issue, and suddenly you need to sign up for a sixth subscription just to watch it. (At this point, you might as well have bought a DVD player and the movie outright.) No one wants to be held hostage by the whims of corporate contracts. When you own the DVD, the CD, the book — it’s yours. End of story.
It’s gotten trendy now to cancel your subscriptions, hit up the local op shop, and build your own collection of faves. Finding old VHS tapes and DVDs has become an adventure in itself, a little like how it felt as a kid roaming the aisles looking for the perfect Friday night movie.
Even gaming is joining the party. People are dusting off their old consoles PS2s, GameCubes, you name it, because, yeah, emulators are cool, but nothing beats the real thing. (Although, could the designers have made those controller cords any shorter? Seriously. My poor eyes.)
Is this a passing fad?
Maybe. Nostalgia has a sneaky way of making everything seem better than it was. But honestly? Whether it’s a phase or a full-blown cultural reset, we’ll be over here clinging to our ancient DVD collections like the treasures they are.
Long live the good old days