They say disco died a few months after I was born, but I never got the memo. They also have said that film is dead, though I’ve had random people on reddit offer to buy very expired unused 35mm film I found in my mother’s belongings after her passing. They say reading is dead but more than 600 independent bookstores opened in 2025, which is almost double the amount that opened in 2024. They tried to say that vinyl is dead and, well, we see how that went. People try to tell me that snail mail is also dead but it certainly isn’t in my house.
There’s this weird obsession with declaring things “dead” or “over” when they are clearly not. It gives the same energy as saying Christopher Columbus “discovered America” when there have been people on this land for generations before he ever got here. The obvious reason for declaring things dead, like libraries, is capitalism. If something is dead, then you have no choice but to buy the new products or buy-in to the new technologies. I feel like we are at a place where we are starting to understand on an individual level what the real costs are of completely leaving behind physical media.
As I’ve mentioned before, I love the internet (for the most part). The internet is allowing me to send this newsletter directly into your inbox, no matter where you are. On the other hand, I don’t know about you but my inbox is full of yet-to-be-read newsletters. I am overwhelmed by content, choice, and access. It is so easy to just leave something unread in my email inbox “for later.” Do you know what I didn’t leave unread? The multi-page letter I just got in the mail from one of my besties on the other side of the pond. It actually may have taken longer to read that letter than it would one of the newsletters in my inbox and yet every time I get a physical piece of mail I drop everything I’m doing and devote my full attention to it. Not only because of who the mail is from, but because I can hold it in my hand and I don’t have to look at a screen to engage with it. The screens are where my tabs are open or where all my apps are. The screens are where my time, attention, and sometimes money disappear.
The letter in my hand isn’t trying to sell me anything. Nor are the books and records on my shelves. I can give a one-time payment for a piece of physical media and I can engage with it repeatedly without a subscription, without ads, and without fear of it being taken away (save a disaster).
I love having access to ebooks and audiobooks and streaming music and shows because there is no way I have physical room to keep everything nor would I want to. I do not want to own every book I have read. I do not want to own a CD of every album I have listened to. I also do not want to print out every photo I have taken with my phone. But what near-infinite catalogs and access do not allow for as well as physical collections is serendipity, inspiration, lessons in patience and focus, and more.
Thank you for reading! I’m so excited that you’re here and I look forward to writing to you more. Please feel free to share this with anyone who you think would appreciate it.