I remember when I got my first VCR. Damn those things were expensive then; I think it cost me about $150. That was around 1997.
Those were the days of marathon video nights. Yes, it was just me, but I would go to the video store and rent 4 or 5 movies and watch them until probably 3 or 4 in the morning. Of course I had to stop at the store and pick up chips and candy too. Luckily I don't have that habit now or I would be huge as I can't eat like I used to and keep off the weight.
That was probably one night out of a week I would do that. Things have changed in various ways since. For one it's too damn expensive to rent lots of movies and buy snacks for a movie marathon. Yes, it probably wasn't any cheaper then but I'm not making any more than I made then income wise and yet everything has doubled and trippled in price, and gas has gone beyond that. Disposable income is a thing of the past for most of us.
I do have lots of movies sitting around I always mean to get to. Is it availability that makes it less pending to watch a lot of movies? I can buy 5 or 6 movies on a DVD for $5, which is less than movies cost when I was renting VHS tapes, so back then I didn't have as many movies sitting around as I do now. Maybe just having movies sitting around makes them seem less pressing to watch.
I think we have a tendency to treat a lot of things like that. Once it becomes more common we have a tendency to ignore it or want it less. Of course renting movies has become less desirable as I mentioned with how the economy has tanked. I see people standing at these red DVD rental machines on a Friday night, but there seems like there's a hell of a lot less of them than the crowd that swarmed the video stores on a Friday night years ago. Of course with work being pretty much a seven day a week affair anymore, weekends are a thing of the past, and so are holidays as it has become more important for stores to sell things on holidays than to allow their employees to spend time with their families.
Where the hell has family video night gone? Except for the wealthier of us, it got sold off pretty cheap to the big megastores.
Just an opinion.
Toxic Fletch