I think overall that piracy is good.

It returns control over media, instead of being bound to specific platforms or stores.
It allows you to test things on your hardware, before committing to a purchase.
It makes it possible to recover old media that you physically lost.
It makes your media portable, able to copy it to a new device or hardware without being locked out.
It makes things sharable, able to give a copy to a friend to have them try it out.

But one thing I find difficult is just the sheer amount of things that exist nowadays.
I don’t know how you guys manage it, but I have more media on just my laptop (external drives and such excluded) than I could really enjoy in my lifetime. How to even make choice of what to watch, play, read, next?

I know, very much a first-world problem. But still, it boggles my mind.

  • dreamishmy@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    20·
    1 day ago

    This problem is isn’t only about piracy. Also having too much choices isn’t a bad thing, variety is good. you can always find your way.

    • Souvenir@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      3·
      16 hours ago

      Also having too much choices isn’t a bad thing

      Meh. It’s not all good.

      Back in ye olden days, when you had to buy physical media, you’d usually play the album you bought on repeat because it was the only new music you had. Some albums, repeated listening does truly improve your enjoyment and appreciation of them. Same thing for movies, there was nothing else, so you were forced to keep watching, and often learnt to appreciate something you’d have stopped watching now.

      Same thing for dating, tbh. People find someone, but then they go on the apps and find someone who might be a bit better, date them for a bit, find someone who might be a bit better, etc. etc. End result; they never get to know one person on a deeper level and miss out on that arguably more rewarding experience.

      Or you’d end up wasting your time watching/listening to/ dating something/someone horrible because there wasn’t anything else yet.

    • AloneDownUnder@quokk.auOPEnglish
      2·
      14 hours ago

      Maybe I’m just terrible at making choices/decisions

      I do find I have this problem even without piracy

      Not sure how to practice becoming better at this though.

      Usually even when I made a choice, I end up doubting and eventually trying something else instead, never committing to anything.

    • sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      17·
      1 day ago

      This is the answer, OP. Curating your tastes and learning to seek out art based on your values is a skillset that algorithms are attempting to destroy.

      You are not a product, engage with art meaningfully like how a person should

      • AloneDownUnder@quokk.auOPEnglish
        2·
        15 hours ago

        I suppose I struggle with the ‘seeking out art based on your values’ part.

        I don’t really have strong preferences, I always liked a wide variety of things. (Or maybe I never bothered figuring out my taste)

        And even If I know my taste, how to find something that fits without spending hours filtering through things?

        I’ve thought about just asking my friends what things they would recommend me. That would already limit the selection. But maybe then again, It wouldn’t be my taste, but theirs.

        • sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyzEnglish
          2·
          14 hours ago

          Well, have you ever seen the website TV Tropes? You can get lost for hours just looking through the different examples of specific plot ideas that make up the entirety of written and visual media. You find a kind of story beat and then some examples and from there you’ll build a vocabulary of how to describe stuff. So when you say, “I really like horror like in The Thing where the monster is our own human body” you can use that to find entire groups of media that’s just like that

          There’s also looking at the creators of stuff you enjoy and connecting them to other things. In the music world, musicians often travel from project to project to collaberate on different things. So if you like, say Rage Against the Machine, Tom Morello has actually done all kinds of awesome stuff with other groups.

          • AloneDownUnder@quokk.auOPEnglish
            2·
            14 hours ago

            Thanks for the suggestions!

            TV tropes seems useful, but also something where I would spend waay too much time.

            Searching for things from the same authors/creators is actually a good idea. I don’t really do that too often.

            • sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyzEnglish
              2·
              14 hours ago

              Glad to help! I was gatekept from a lot of stuff when I was younger so I’m glad to pass along techniques or pick up new ones. When you discover something by yourself, it can feel pretty transcendent. 🤘

      • tea@lemmy.todayEnglish
        7·
        23 hours ago

        This is something that I learned after having kids. There are more things I want to do than I have time to do them. I needed to learn the skill of being selective because time is a zero sum game, unfortunately.