I have developed a reputation for selecting less-than-stellar hotels on behalf of my family.

I have a tendency to go off the beaten path: trying to find a" hidden gem" among the franchises, only to turn up fool's gold.

One hotel on our recent road trip to Williamsburg landed us in a dated hotel that offered an amenity I had not seen in sometime: a VCR. Did the hotel also have VHS tapes to borrow? We didn't have time to ask.

This brought me back to my childhood in the 80s and 90s. VHS and Beta, along with the actual theaters, were the only way to watch movies without commercials or abridgment. I loved going to one of our two local movie rental stores to see what new releases were out. These visits also surrounded me with other movie aficionados. The clerks and fellow customers offered camaraderie in our affinity for cinema.

In 2000, as a new teacher in a new city and not knowing many people at all, I got on a first name basis with similar staff, this time looking for newly released DVDs. Later on, when I brought my new girlfriend (and future wife) with me to rent a movie, she laughed when the clerks knew me by first name.

These weak ties developed in the aisles of movie rental stores were a source of strength growing up. Do people still develop these connections now, without these common spaces? Online, are the ties too weak? Too transactional? Possibly.