My media menu 2024
In the technology diary, Kathrin Passig shares with us her media menu and the shifts that have taken place over the last twelve years. I think it’s interesting and I’ll try my own buffet:
In recent years I have almost only read books for entertainment digitally, partly due to a lack of storage space. Almost only because there are a few exceptions: some authors (in particular Kim Stanley Robinson, Cory Doctorow and Neal Stephenson come to mind here) that I collect “in paper”, well, and also like to have on hand, so that I could, for example, introduce them to my children completely by chance. Then I have a number of German-language novels in paper form in my pile of unread books (and a few that I have actually read) – I think this has something to do with the fact that the e-books here are usually almost as expensive as the paper books . And the fact that a whole series of them are books that were given to me. Then there are a few paperbacks that I bought because I was bored waiting at train stations. Full shelves, full stacks of books to read, but everything would be even worse if the digital books (admittedly on a Kindle) were also visible.
Books to learn something are – difficult. I actually prefer to buy them in paper, perhaps because it gives me more of an incentive to take a look instead of forgetting them in the long “unread” list. Similar to museum catalogs. When it comes to non-fiction, however, the pile of unread books is much worse than when it comes to entertainment literature. (If you look more closely, there is also a mixed category: non-fiction books, which I read not because I believe they are somehow important and relevant, i.e. to the political situation or the climate catastrophe, but because I have a certain soft spot for strange facts. This usually works better with quickly written English-language books.)
Newspapers and magazines: I read – this was different a few years ago and has something to do with renewed local political commitment – the Badische Zeitung every day (on the tablet, not on paper). We also have the taz on paper in the house, which I look at from time to time. I have a number of online subscriptions (Guardian, Spiegel, Zeit) that I use more or less intensively – more to read individual articles than to look through newspapers. When I moved, I canceled my Jungle World subscription because I noticed that it was piling up into wonderful piles of paper, but I rarely had time to look at it. There are also a number of magazines (in paper form) that I have subscribed to or that I receive as a result of party membership or other memberships. The same applies here: I look in less often than I would actually like.
Last but not least, the newspaper category includes the press review, which I receive for work and which gives an overview of current state political events in the newspapers of Baden-Württemberg. This is a PDF that I read on my PC or tablet.
I primarily use Mastodon online, but I occasionally check Facebook and Linkedin (all three via the respective website, not the apps). In addition to the online subscriptions mentioned, I find most of what I read/watch online (mostly on my cell phone) via Mastodon. Or through a targeted search – for me so far it’s been on Google, but I’m increasingly dissatisfied with it. I have also subscribed to the RSS feed of a number of blogs, magazines and other websites via Feedly and look through them every few days, for example Max Buddenbohm’s blog, xkcd or the blog of the SF author Charles Stross or SF- heavy websites like Gizmodo or tor.com. Don’t forget Netzpolitik.org! At the same time, I agree with Kathrin Passig’s observation that many blogs simply no longer exist. I’m particularly sad every time I look at BoingBoing, which I still see in Feedly, but which has now become 90 percent an advertising shill.
I ignore YouTube (and all the other short video platforms) except for live streams. I don’t really get warm to podcasts – there are a few that I actually listen to while cooking, for example (Star Stories, The Universe), but there are many that I’ve listened to and didn’t really get into. Some music is still on CD, now (another evil quasi-monopolist) very often on Spotify.
We have subscribed to three to four streaming providers in-house and use them intensively, much more often than the public broadcasting media libraries. They are used very event-related and for a few formats (Böhmermann, Anstalt, … very rarely actually films/series). Linear radio is sometimes listened to during breakfast here, but it’s not really my thing; linear television no longer works on our TVs. I go to the cinema two or three times a year.
Kathrin Passig writes that she supports some people via Patreon or Steady and rarely if ever looks at the results – I feel the same way: “It’s more about the principle, I want these people to continue making videos, writing books or whatever just pretend.”
(Till Westermayer, first published at blog.till-westermayer.de/index.php/2024/01/18/mein-medienmenue-2024/ – there with an additional photo of leeks in book form)