So, here’s something that probably won’t surprise anyone:

I don’t care what new movies are coming out.

It has nothing to do with whether or not I think they all suck these days. I don’t even know what’s coming out half the time, unless I happen to see a commercial or an ad. Sometimes I will be excited about a new movie, but it’s only because it would interest me regardless. I’d rather it be already out and something I could watch at home with a few friends.

I don’t consume all the new TV shows coming out. I have a hard time keeping up with new episodes on the very few that I do watch on TV as opposed to on Hulu or whatever. I don’t comb bestseller lists for upcoming novels, nor do I really watch new bands in the hopes of finding something to add to my collection. I try, as well as I can, to consume things which are good, whenever they were released. If it’s a band that’s releasing new material, or a movie that might be coming out in theaters soon, that’s a great bonus. But I try to focus on finding things which are good.

The weird thing, to me, is this seems to be outside of mainstream consumption habits. Most people seem to find a way to watch all the new TV series and catch all the new movies and know about all the new music (I have never met someone who knows about all the new books out there, though, which may be why print is dying). It is never so striking, to me, as looking at a music collection several times larger than my own. It is not uncommon to find that they share a few bands with me, but it is uncommon for them to be more than passingly familiar with the work of those bands. They know a song or two, usually the obvious singles, and the rest is a vague, unexplored mystery to them.

I don’t think I could live in this world of constantly being fed what is new, digesting it, and then immediately hungering for more. Does it even last? When I listen to an album enough for it to become one of my favorites, it remains there. I still go back and listen to all of them fairly regularly. I sometimes get the feeling that after someone drops ten dollars on an album, they listen to it once and then never go back again. I couldn’t do that.