Tin Can phones won't save us from an infrastructure problem

I went super viral on Threads with this post so I figured it deserved a place here.

But the thing I want to draw your attention to is the commentary that came about in the (predictably not great) comment section: many well meaning people were pointing out that technically you *can* still load songs on an iPod or mp3 player, and you can buy a cheap disc drive and get CDs from the library to rip.

But all of that misses my point. My point is that the level of time, attention, planning, and other labor this now requires has vastly increased from when we were haphazardly updating our iPods with our iBooks in 2006.

Plus, the infrastructure of physical media simply is not up to date with the *interests* represented in current media. If your child enjoys modern music and media, your options are to rely on streaming music services or to purchase *rights* to the media which is not the same thing as actually owning it.

And many kids’ interests, even popular stuff like the Kpop Demon Hunters Soundtrack, are not going to be easily available on physical media.

Attempts to recreate “old” or “dumb” media like iPods or “dumb” phones or landlines are still reliant on CURRENT infrastructure; the Tin Can phone, the yoto, the Tonie, streaming based mp3 players, these still rely on an internet connection. The infrastructure needed to be able to easily purchase or own content, and then easily move it to a device is not as easily accessible or maintained as it was 10, let alone 20 years ago.

And when people point the finger at individuals for not “simply” hoarding physical media and going through the hurdles to make it available to their kids, we are falling victim to the same trap that got us here; the idea that companies’ capitalist drive to make money and own the digital supply chain is somehow the job of an individual to overcome, as opposed to yet another sign of the failure of a larger system.