Save Our Media! By: Ziggy McGowan

It’s a very real possibility that we will no longer have access to the internet at some point in the future. All of your schoolwork, art, music, documents, calendars, podcasts, shows, etc. will be lost to the death of the internet. It’s impossible to predict exactly what will cause the end, but it’s almost certainly a given that it will occur. It’s not a gleeful future to imagine; your curated playlists and expertly crafted spreadsheets getting wiped with no way to retrieve them, but it’s something we should prepare for.

Preparing for an event like this is difficult with where our society is regarding media preservation. 3.6% of movie and television show revenue is pulled from physical media, a whopping 86.3% comes from streaming services, and 10% comes from digital sales and rentals, according to The Digital Entertainment Group. The less we utilize our physical media resources, the less companies are going to want to publish their movies and TV shows on DVDs. In the music world, CDs, records, and cassettes are treated as collector’s items rather than a genuine form of entertainment. We’ve already seen the effects of losing media via the digital world through a phenomenon called lost media.

The term “lost media” refers to books, movies, TV shows, songs, video games, books, and more that are thought to no longer exist in any format, whether physical or digital. Lots of times, these pieces of media disappear due to wiping, websites being shut down, few copies being printed (if at all), or even simply never being published. Most lost media is never found, forgotten to the depths of the internet. The United States Library of Congress estimates that 70% of silent films are entirely lost, with no hope of recovery. However, there are internet forums designated to discussing these books and movies, often with the goal of finding them. A significant piece of lost media found is the lost song “Everyone Knows That”. A seventeen-second clip of an 80s pop song was uploaded to Whatzatsong.com by user Carl92 in 2021. In April of 2024, the song was discovered in an adult film from 1986. However, this is just one of very few incidents of some form of lost media being found. 

It may be disheartening to hear that we may never find certain movies, books, songs, or even the origins of some photos due to the tide of the internet, but there are ways we can prevent instances like these. Below are some ways you can preserve your favorites.

Music

• Buy CDs and vinyl records of your favorite albums. You may have to buy a player, but it’s worth it in the long run in case your favorite songs get taken off your listening service.

• Burn CDs and create mixtapes. It’s easy to burn a CD if you have the materials. There are many helpful articles on how to do it.

Movies and TV

• Buy Blu-ray DVDs of your favorite film or show. Blu-ray is a good alternative to regular DVDs, allowing for higher quality video and audio, and offers more features. Most TV shows are on Blu-ray, and you can select seasons and episodes on the main menu. You do need a Blu-ray player, but most of them you can buy at a local Best Buy or other tech store for under a hundred dollars. 

Video Games

• While video game companies tend to sell the digital version of their games for cheaper than the physical copies, buying a physical copy is a good way to send a message that you stand for preserving physical media and you are dedicated to the company and their products. 

Photos

• Create a photo album featuring your favorite photos. You can easily print out photos in color at Staples, CVS, Walgreens, etc. for incredibly cheap, plus the material (glossy photo paper) is higher quality than regular printer paper. 

• Create a scrapbook. If you want to get more creative than a boring photo album, scrapbooks are the way to go. You can usually buy a blank scrapbook at a local craft store and decorate it with stickers, string, small beads, and more. 

Videos

• Similar to CDs, you can also burn visual media onto DVDs. A DVD player would be required to view them, but it is possible.