Over the last 2 years, I’ve noticed that I spend WAY more time carefully cataloguing my collections of digital media (games, anime) than actually experiencing those media.

I would spend months carefully renaming the files, grouping them into folders by franchise, creating watch order files, remuxing videos so they would only have one audio and one subtitle file, reencoding videos that I considered bloated, reencoding videos that had flac or 5.1 audio to opus stereo, putting all my files into a spreadsheet along with other information, etc. etc.

Today I realized that my obsession is pointless. I’m just wasting my life doing something that’s not enjoyable, instead of experiencing the media I’ve collected. Who am I making those neat-looking catalogues for? I will never pass on my collection to anyone. I am just lost in my unhealthy obsession instead of enjoying life.

So yeah. Today I’ve decided to stop wasting my time. I will keep archiving (because I believe that in the future, the governments will make it very difficult to share copyrighted media online), but I will stop trying to make my collection look nice and tidy.

I will also delete stuff that I’ve watched/played that I didn’t enjoy. I’ve come to a realization there’s no point archiving it if I’m never going to use it again.

Anyways, I hope this helps someone realize that obsessions with cataloguing your hoards are unhealthy and a waste of life.

  • Vinterglede@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I’ve had the same thoughts many times. It is a never-ending work in progress.

    Problem #1: I like too much, but I will never have enough time to watch/read/play/listen to it all in my lifetime. I need to be more selective with the content and keep only what I love and start deleting the average/OK stuff.

    Problem #2: Most of the re-encoding done is because of a constant struggle with HD space.

    I will keep organizing and tidying (sometimes it’s relaxing and fun), but I will try to do the bare minimum just so that I’m able to find stuff again and not have it too messy. I need to spend the time enjoying the content rather than just organizing forever.