The way technological advances have led to digital media and information storage has many so enamored with this convenience that they might not take the peril of this very seriously. Given what I have written about before, the title might seem to refer to the peril of mistaking popular information and epistemology for provable facts or for intentionally outsourcing worldview formation to others, but the peril referred to here is of a far more practical, financial kind pertaining to a person's digital possessions. Since reason and rationalism encompass all things, it is not as if business, economics, and technology are outside of rationalistic philosophy even though none of these things are as abstract, foundational, or otherwise important like more explicitly philosophical matters are.
Holding either general written/typed information or entertainment purchases or databases online means that the content is actually outside of consumer control; they can only access it if there are no technical difficulties and if the company behind whatever cloud service they are using both stays active and does not block their access. While this does not happen enough to have inspired thorough concern in the words of general consumers, it does mean that the broad shift towards digital sales and use of entertainment (with physical discs and cartridges for media having a smaller emphasis when more people just rely on downloads or cloud services) sets the consumers involved up for a grand vulnerability some of them might not even think about.
If the cloud, streaming, or download service was halted or sabotaged, the digital content of every user is gone--unless they downloaded whatever content they paid for off of the cloud (as with a digital video game download), in which case they will be unable to redownload it upon deleting it. Obviously, physical media and other items can be destroyed or rendered useless with water, fire, harsh treatment, and sheer neglect, but a physical purchase is safe even if a company and whatever digital services it offered collapse. There is in one sense a greater safety for consumer purchases where physical belongings are concerned than there is when it comes to a digital item tied strictly to both internet access and a company's services remaining in effect. Bankruptcy and corporate negligence cannot get in the way of using physical media one has already obtained.
Physical media is objectively more secure for consumers, in spite of the immediate convenience of many digital services, purchases, or rentals. Not every contemporary trend in business in technology truly benefits consumers as much as it might first appear. Yes, cloud-based information storage and media have the benefit of holding more than most people's devices--whether computers, smartphones, or game consoles--could on their own, and they can allow for the grand convenience of instant access to a plethora of information and entertainment that one cannot normally use, but this always comes with the risk of losing every part of this service without warning or recovery (unless one hypothetically owned the cloud service in question).
The intersection of trends in business and technology can be subjectively fascinating to the point of making a person grateful he or she was born in the present age. Sometimes, this fascination might distract someone from the fact that they can prevent digital softwares, apps, and storage from depriving them of the physical items that can outlast the promises and hype behind novel technology and business tactics. Some people might not realize until after a hypothetical mass loss of digital media and information that they could have done things, some of them not particularly expensive, to ensure they have a more genuine kind ownership over certain things they have bought.
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