With the introduction of new technologies, it has become a lot easier and quicker to rent movies or watch entire seasons of television shows. There’s the instant streaming feature that Netflix provides, which allows users to watch movies or TV shows instantly on a game console, like the PlayStation 3, or on an Internet connected Blu-ray player. Then there’s the Redbox kiosks that can be found at virtually any store.
This allows anyone the opportunity to rent movies without the hassle of paying for Netflix or going to a popular video rental place because the fee for renting a video is only $1 a night. Then there’s the old fashioned way, which is going to a place like Blockbuster, and taking your time looking for the right movie or video game. You don’t have to worry about the long line behind you at the Redbox when you are browsing for a movie or waiting for a movie to be mailed to you.  
But really, which of these video rental services are the best one to use? The answer is up to the consumer. For some, there just isn’t anything like driving to a video store, with the anticipation of getting the latest video that was just released and experiencing “movie magic.”
Where is the fun of renting a movie?  Movies have been a part of the American culture for over 100 years.  And if going to a theater to see a movie is a magical experience, shouldn’t renting movies be too?  
It seems as though the magic and the fun in renting a movie has stopped.  When Blockbuster Video first came about, there were all sorts of movie posters hanging around with televisions playing various movies and lights flashing all over the place, along with the classic standing cardboard posters.  Now the stores are run like a business.  There aren’t any lights.  The posters are gone.  There aren’t as many TVs and the sections are marked with smaller signs than they had back in the day.  
In the early ‘90s, there was a chain of video rental store called Video Park.  This was like the Disneyland of video rental places.  The Action and Adventure section had its own room that was made to look like something out of “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” complete with a model depicting a scene from that movie.  The horror section was made to look like a creepy cabin. Inside was black light so you  can see the videos on display. The feature of the room was a coffin that would have a hand lift it up, like a dead person was trying to get out. The other sections like comedy and family had professionally painted on the walls various characters or posters from various movies of the genre.  
As the centerpiece to the store, there was a fancy looking wood carving that held about 12 TVs playing the featured movie of the day. To complete the theme of being a park, there were old fashioned street lights and a fake brick path leading you to the sections around the store complete with park benches.
Almost 20 years later, that place is long gone. For those who remember, the memory of this place still stays.  But those who know the Blockbuster Video of today will never understand the magic and fun of renting movies.
Is this a preview of things to come? With ebooks on the rise,it’s becoming a lot more common for people to buy books that are very cheap, some the same price as a song on iTunes. Now some popular newspapers are slowly moving toward being online exclusively.
Soon video rental stores will become obsolete in favor of the convenience of instant streaming. And no one will ever know about what it would mean to rent a movie;no one will ever know about the fun and anticipation in renting a movie.