What is Digital Media? The thing you're using right now. Smartphones, Digital screens and AI. You can watch movies from home, you can do shopping from home and you can even listen to music, all on one device! From first glance, this sounds incredible and no one really thinks much of it, as long as it's convenient to them and as long as companies keep putting them out, we'll keep buying.

But reminder, it's 2026 and the Digital Media era isn't going anywhere. You can do online shopping, but that's eating away your money because you're having things waved in front of you which you wouldn't even have bought if you just didn't have this option. It's like waving candy in front of a little girl with rotten teeth. Sure, it tastes great but at what cost? You complain about rent, and yet you're constantly shopping online because you can't control yourself. Mind you, half of the stuff you buy, you wouldn't even have glanced at if you had seen it in real life because it doesn't look the same. It's great to have things to buy, seeing new things you can purchase but have you ever heard of the phrase, "Just because you can have something, doesn't mean you should?"

You can watch a movie or TV Show online, but as long as it hasn't been removed by Netflix, right? I mean, come on. Does that not annoy you sometimes? It could be a great film that everyone loves and yet, it's gone. Why? Because it doesn't belong to you. You don't own it and you don't have it sitting on the back of your shelf ready to watch whenever you want. Everything you're watching is on a rich person's website or app, not yours, and you're putting money into something that you're not even owning. You're renting it, and if not? The deal is gone. Solution? A DVD Player, you would be able to watch those same movies or new movies over and over again without needing to pay. Think about it. Three movies for 9.99 a month on Netflix would be a payment of £1.50 one time and never again without internet, any sudden removals or ads, just a movie you own that'll become a memory. You can bring it on a bus, a train or in the car, it's portable and cheaper.

The same thing goes for music, and you might be getting ready to argue that Physical Media is expensive. Because you guys are throwing it away. You're actively throwing away something good, something fun that'd literally cost 10x less because you're too focused on buying what the next person's putting out. It's becoming a vintage relic and it's an awesome one at that, why wouldn't it be? Yet, if you guys managed to make it the primary source of media, you'd be surprised to see how fast it drops. Not just that, but inflation too. A big reason for inflation as we know is AI and Social Media trends raising the demands of things that become slightly trendy.

Think about it. The Digital era is a future they promise you that doesn't even exist, and while you're in the middle of it, our generation is statistically proven to be the most depressed generation of all time. Yet, Physical Media has already dominated and has proved that with it, we're happier. We ourselves are Physical, human beings that live in a Physical world. No matter how many things you make Digital, you're a human, not a robot. Trying to combine the two will only clash, and some things just shouldn't happen. This is one of them. And this could just be an Era. There's a reason why life was colourful back then when Physical Media dominated, because everything was made by humans. Your interests weren't being hidden away in a plain rectangular device that doesn't even belong to you, but they were being expressed through your clothes, rooms and exteriors.

Remember when you could be cringe because it was amongst you and a group of friends who thought it was funny? It wasn't being shown to a live audience and you weren't living in constant fear of being recorded and posted online to be made fun of. Remember when the future was something exciting, not something to be afraid of? Do you find yourself comparing yourself to strangers online, 10,000 miles away from you whom you wouldn't even have known existed if you just didn't open that app? Comparison will always exist, but one is real, the other one isn't. One is avoidable, the other one isn't. You don't need to be occupied with two.

Please bring back Physical Media before it's too late. We're not asking you guys to do anything, we're asking for companies like Samsung, SONY, Apple, etc... to start producing even new forms of Physical Media. Faster, better, as long as it's Physical and isn't damaging our attention spans, training our brains into seeking instant dopamine or making us nosy about what's going on in strangers lives who we'll literally never meet. You can meet people online, you can do that without it too. You can laugh at memes, you can do that without it too. You can be inspired, you can do that without it too. You don't need Digital Media as much as they want you to believe. This is a start. Next time you're on a train, look around you. Imagine how that train would've looked without all the phones in their hands. It might seem like something you can just read and scroll past, but you'll regret it in 10 years time.