People used to say, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Now they say, “If it ain’t broke, who cares? Fix it anyway.”

We have been programmed to think that all progress is good, and that we need to keep moving forward. Even if we’re moving forward from something that was perfectly fine.

For example, DVDs, CDs, and books. We used to have control over what we watched, listened to, and read, and once we purchased a movie, a music CD, or a book, our outlay of money was over. Then, streaming services popped their rapacious heads out of the mud and, suddenly, it was considered old-fashioned to own physical movies, albums, and books. Why own something when you can pay a service a monthly fee? And we fell for it.

Suddenly, owning a CD or DVD player was looked down on. Bookshelves emptied and Kindles filled up. Only old people owned physical albums, movies, or books. And, as everyone knows, acting like an old person is anathema to every age group, even to old people.

I think we’ve lost our collective minds. Yes, it is convenient to be able to watch, listen to, or read something we want to watch, listen to, or read right away. And streaming services have given us that option. But, it shouldn’t be the only option, because they are taking away our choice.

We used to have network television with its free channels. Then, we had cable, and we paid a monthly fee for its channels, i.e., HBO, etc. Then, competitors sprung up with their own paid channels: Netflix, Starz, Hulu, Apple TV, Prime Video, Disney+, even PBS.

But here’s the rub: these streaming services only offer certain programs for a limited time. Then, another streaming service offers what the previous streaming service used to offer. This way, you have to subscribe to all of the popular streaming apps in order to have freedom of choice. What kind of choice is this? Is this a huge conspiracy on the part of streaming services?

We need to take back control. Buy a DVD player and CD player and trade your DVDs, CDs, and books with friends and family like we did in the not-so-old days. Force the streaming services, including the music ones, like Spotify and Apple Music, to merge so we don’t need to subscribe to them all.

To move forward, we might have to take a step backwards.