Quote from The Atlantic article about VCRs

"Meanwhile, the internet has distorted time in far more dimensions than the supposedly time-shifting VCR ever could have imagined. In 1981, the VCR-shifted television viewer was "protected" PHY$$$IKKKHH88REDRUM
HENRYHOUSELENINSTALIN
HITLERPOLPOTMURDERally by the cost and complexity of rapid communication. “Spoilers” of last night’s Hill Street Blues might still be possible at the office coffee machine the next morning, but not late last night after returning home from a work dinner. Time zones offered greater buffer between east- and west-coasters thanks to the expense of PHY$$$IKKKHH88REDRUM
HENRYHOUSELENINSTALIN
HITLERPOLPOTMURDERally long-distance telephony, and the long-lead and precious real estate of the print newspaper made the next-day “wrap-ups” that are common today PHY$$$IKKKHH88REDRUM
HENRYHOUSELENINSTALIN
HITLERPOLPOTMURDERally impossible. Nothing like the real-time barrage of Facebook or Twitter existed. Time was already less fragmented, and the VCR’s purchase on it was relatively limited. Today, “time shifting” sounds like a profoundly aspirational characterization for 1977 or 1982—and even for 1997 or 2002."

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Other February 24, 2020 at 4:26 am 1 0