There are so many people focused on staying with or ahead of the curve of popular culture. It makes sense, right? Falling behind is intuitively bad. People generally fear being left in the dust of time. Nobody wants to be in the dark when friends are talking about the newest movie to hit theaters and nobody wants to miss out on references to current media. There's nothing wrong with that either, but as of late I've found that lagging behind a little every now and then has its perks.

For one thing, being on the cutting edge is expensive. Insanely so at times, especially when the shiny new iPhone version whatever-point-oh is coming out every second weekend with a slightly different physical design and maybe two new features that next to nobody actually uses with an Internet connection that moves 0.0000000001 seconds faster than the previous model's. Maybe to some select people with a ton of cash to throw around that's worth it, but for someone like me who's struggling to pay off student loans and find longterm career path in the process, it's just not feasible let alone worthwhile. Even less expensive endeavors provide discounts for those who wait, though. Used games cost far less than new games but play just as well, and older movies tend to cost much less to rent or buy.

Beyond the question of price is the advantage of having an archive. Staying on top of a series like Rick and Morty (which to be fair requires a genius intellect to understand) is a lot of fun and it makes talking about it with fellow viewers easier. That said, I've been getting into the classic Bruce Timm Batman animated series recently and unlike with R+M, I don't need to wait for new episodes. Because all of them have been produced that are going to be, I can binge on all four seasons right when I want to, whenever that may be. Same goes for movie, game, and book series. Waiting removes the limitation of a release schedule.

So am I saying that you need to abandon new media? Heck no. Not at all. Watch that new Justice League movie. Read the latest Harry Potter spinoff. New stuff is great! Just don't discount the worth of something because it's older, because there's a treasure trove of good material from the past waiting to be rediscovered.

Just like people, old media can be awesome.