As Is the Habit of Some: The Fated Value of Space in a Mobile Culture
A Friend in the Audience
April 30th, 2019 was the first time I went to a movie theater by myself. I saw Avengers: Endgame seated in the middle aisle walkway which was only connected to one other seat dedicated to handicapped individuals. Considering it was reserved seating, I assumed that the handicapped spot next to me would remain vacant. To my surprise, just as trailers were beginning to roll, a young woman carrying a large neck brace entered the theater and sat next to me. After she settled into her seat and strapped the neck brace on as if it were second nature, we struck up a conversation, talking over the explosions and overbearing 'this summer' title cards on the big screen.Over the course of a few minutes I learned that her name was Heather; that she livd close to the theater; that her physical therapist instructed her to wear her neck brace for three hours a day; and that she'd only seen two Marvel movies -- Infinity War not being one of them! I kindly provided an abridged synopsis of the 17 movies she'd missed out on. During the first 10 minutes of Endgame, she would periodically lean over and ask, "Who is that one, again?" when a beloved hero would appear on screen.It was one of the most unique theater experiences I've ever had. I was reminded of just how communal going to the movies can be. On the bus ride home I realized that Heather and I had had a more substantial connection than the surface-level ones I had with the people consistently sitting near me on a Sunday morning. From that point on, the importance of movie theaters as a space extended beyond a personal bias and became a point of study. The cinema used to be an event that people would dress their nicest for. It was just like going to any other play or theater show... So what's changed? How did we get to an age where experiencing movies can happen almost anywhere, on any screen?Christians are deeply affected by the personalized mobile entertainment permeating everyday life. The video streaming services at our convenience have cultivated a culture which devalues the importance of space in our interactions, liturgies, and church services. The focus here is not to present a critique over the distinct messages of movies/TV series, but to instead hone in on the geography in which the medium (cinema) is being consumed in and expose the interrelationship it shares with church practice today, and the church practice of tomorrow.
The Video Stream Rises
It would be convenient to claim how streaming services have sucked box office revenues dry and left movie theaters in the dust, but — although there have been significant economic shifts — the theaters are actually doing quite fine. Once Netflix initiated their streaming service in 2007, it didn’t take long for consumers to realize that renting DVDs wasn’t as convenient as streaming them at home. Blockbuster filed bankruptcy by 2010 and Netflix began an exponential climb in subscriptions while cable gradually went down. The legitimization of digital distribution created an industry shaking transformation that is still taking place today.Studio networks have been adjusting to Netflix’s success by starting their own streaming services or offering hefty contracts to their top players to avoid them being signed away elsewhere. And now even Disney has joined the bandwagon by releasing their own video on-demand (VOD) service, and many other broadcasters are due to follow this competitive trend by offering exclusive and/or original content.Within the pursuit of exclusivity, VOD services are fragmenting a digital realm which is already disjointed. Multiple subscriptions and account logins are required across platforms if you want to watch all of your favorite shows. Because of the amount of services, VOD has almost become a new hybrid of what cable TV already was.
Make it Mobile
VOD services caused a significant push towards platform mobility; the ability to access a wide range of content across mobile platforms.The advertising of mobile connectivity has always been a huge staple of smartphone technology and other devices, so when VOD collided with everyone’s pocket computer, video entertainment lost any spatial requirements. Our favorite TV shows migrated out of their original habitat of the living room and began nesting in any area with a stable WiFi connection. With platform mobility, VOD has contributed heavily towards an erosion of space, which will be looked at in more detail soon.
Subscription Vs. Tickets
The relationship between video streaming and TV has caused a crucial shift, but the economic effects on movie theaters hasn’t been as negative. “Last year, the domestic box office had a record-breaking year, hauling in $11.9 billion, there was a 5% rise in the number of movie tickets sold, and 263 million people — 75 percent of the population — saw at least one movie in theaters” (Whitten, 2019).
VOD services aren’t taking audiences away from movie theaters, they’re taking people out of audiences.
Theaters are surprisingly not facing less revenue because of VOD. Because the majority of new content is still premiering theatrically, and the window of release still opposes straight-to-streaming release, people are buying movie tickets just as they always have. VOD services aren’t taking audiences away from movie theaters, they’re taking people out of audiences.
R.I.P. Blockbuster
Ever since home video and VHS, movies have continued further and further into platform mobility. In today’s movie media environment, it’s easy to forget that media mobility began with tangible cassettes. Before outside services offered content to consumers (analog or digital), the content was plainly offered on shelves at video stores.If you wanted to buy or rent a movie, you needed to travel to the nearest video store, walk through a few aisles, and interact with a cashier. Movies could now be experienced in the home with a VHS player hooked up to the TV. Purchasing a movie for viewership took more time spent with more physical action, regardless of the convenience.Once movies began being sold digitally, platform mobility increased tenfold. Movies could now be bought online and were ready to play right after purchase. Less time with less physical action was required for movie viewership. Devices capable of streaming and storing movies physically became smaller as well; laptops and phones getting thinner every year. Now we see a trend of streaming all kinds of media on the go. Movies are no longer restricted to wherever you can fit a monitor and a DVD player. The cinematic experience of the movie theater has quickly become even more distanced from what platform mobility has provided.
Unnecessary Audience
With platform mobility comes physically separated mobile connectivity. There’s a very real dichotomy in that oxymoronic-sounding interrelationship. VODs and convenient content access are taking people from audiences because we’ve developed a culture of individualized media consuming practices. The value of communal consumption digresses at the increase of on-demand mobile content.For example, the idea of freeing up your schedule so you and your family don’t miss a movie airing at 7:30pm will be a foreign concept when what we want is available when we want it where we want it. The viewer can now choose the solitary comfort of their own room or coffee shop, home etc., to watch a movie while discussing their experiences in a group chat or social media with thousands of other fans in different parts of the world. Virtual audiences can talk about a film that just released even though none of them participated in the same space.The movie theater is not dead, but the building itself and the liturgies formed in attending it are no longer necessary. Liturgies as simple as waiting in line as the buttery scent of popcorn wafts over you, buying your favorite candy, finding the best seats, turning off your phone before the film begins, and walking out of the theater alongside strangers who are debriefing their experiences with their friends.
Live Streaming Church
Live streaming church services aren’t taking congregants from attending said service, they’re taking people out of community. No matter how frequently a churchgoer may stay home or miss service and live stream, no matter how highly the church promotes live streaming or not, offering an online service experience inherently deemphasizes the importance of space.Just like the movie theater, churches are clearly not dying because of the technology of platform mobility. However, a substitutionary mode in which an incarnate practice is experienced cannot be sustained; One will begin to overtake the other.Based on how platform mobility has affected TV and film, it would not be very surprising if the church — even by just dipping their toes in live stream and video sermons — began accepting online congregations as fully participating members of a church service. With the slow decomposition of space in regards to accessible media, the church is no less victim to these affects than the movie theater is.One article that lays out the benefits of live streaming church services can be read here. The article’s claims are sound, but even the perks do not address the underlying issue of lessening the role of space. Claims like ‘stay connected’, ‘gives another way to participate in ministry’, or ‘engage with your ministry at any point in the week’ have no interest in the preservation of incarnate liturgy. Live streaming therefore substitutes the assembling of the body of Christ.
The Body and its Members
In 2018, a new app called Churchome was advertised. The idea being that you can experience church and community from anywhere by just using your phone.[embed]https://youtu.be/iluBpPkCZ1Q[/embed]
fully experience church on your phone
Platform mobility's influence on ecclesiology is more than evident here. The app itself offers chat lobbies for prayer and discussion over video devotionals and a thread for prayer requests where you can press down with both thumbs on the screen to pray as hearts float up across the UI. Share buttons are also available on this page to encourage inviting others to use the app as well. On demand sermons and other video content is also available.There's not enough time to completely dissect the content and presentation of Churchome, but they are attempting to provide a full, digital church experience. Is this how the body of Christ is meant to convene?Countless times in Revelation the Church is referred to as the Bride of Christ, the wife of the Lamb (Revelation 21:9). And again also the Church is referred to as the body of Christ, Himself being the head (Ephesians 5:23). That means that we are individually members of the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27), awaiting to be fully united with the Bridegroom. With this beautiful picture in mind, what is the importance of space and being physically present in a church service? The Church is more than just a building after all.The word 'church' comes from the Greek word ἐκκλησία, which literally means 'assembly' or 'a gathering of people'. Although the Church is more than a building, the Church still gathers somewhere. Be it a home, a shed, or a cathedral, the church assembles. We gather and participate, partake in, and commune with each other and the Gospel in a space. Christ commands us to baptize in His name (Matthew 28:19) and partake in the Lord's supper in remembrance of Him (Luke 22:19), so we receive and engage in these also. Communion tables are set up in the same place, or passed out by fellow members of the body as we partake in the broken bread and wine. Baptism takes place in front of the congregation and we applaud those who profess their faith. The community is physical and essential, it's incarnate.Live streaming church is now leading into more elaborate grounds like Churchome; attempting to offer the gathering of the body without physically gathering the body. Internet churches are offering similar experiences, preaching the Gospel by completely digital means. Although we are members of the body regardless of location, these churches fragment the physical assembly and devalue the need for a space to gather and commune.Platform mobility will only increase with new technologies and VOD services, bringing about a lesser and lesser role of space in transmitted messages. The trends here are obvious albeit unexpected. No one can really say exactly where platform mobility will lead us from here, but it certainly lessens the requirement of physically showing up to a designated location.Hebrews 10:24-25 encourages believers to stir one another towards good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some. The digital environment we live in provides a plethora of options as to how we can communicate. Apps are designed specifically for conference calls and live lectures. No one is arguing against the value of community and being together. Scripture is abundantly clear on the power of community. But, convenient virtual means are blurring the lines between how community should and shouldn’t be practiced. It's time we press pause on our live stream not because there are a bunch of seats that need filling at church, but because we need to be present with one another in the space of those seats. Otherwise, we may form the habitual practice of receiving the Word from a screen.Sklar, Robert, and David A. Cook. “History of the Motion Picture.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 8 Jan. 2019, www.britannica.com/art/history-of-the-motion-picture.Tryon, Chuck. On-Demand Culture: Digital Delivery and the Future of Movies . Rutgers University Press. Kindle Edition.Hickey. “Hickey.” MMM, 6 Dec. 2018, j469.ascjclass.org/2018/12/06/netflix-the-economic-impacts-of-the-growing-disruptor/.Granados, Nelson, and John Mooney. “Popcorn or Snack? Empirical Analysis of Movie Release Windows.” Digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu, Mar. 2018, pp. 1–27., digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1005&context=graziadiowps.Mcmillan, Graeme. “Netflix, Amazon Video, and Xfinity Are Accidentally Re-Creating Cable TV.” The Verge, The Verge, 13 Aug. 2018, www.theverge.com/2018/8/13/17672176/netflix-amazon-prime-video-xfinity-deals-old-media-disruption-recreating-cable.Whitten, Sarah. “Netflix Isn't Killing Movie Theaters: Viewers Who Stream More Also Go to Cinemas More.” CNBC, CNBC, 8 Apr. 2019, www.cnbc.com/2019/04/08/netflix-isnt-killing-theaters-people-who-steam-more-see-movies-more.html.“5 Biggest Online Churches.” Blog.capterra.com, blog.capterra.com/the-5-biggest-online-churches/.