Elizabeth R. Gordon Interviewed by Lilia Bierman

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:37:24

LILIA: Okay. I'm recording. 

ERG: Okay. As I'm scratching my head. Please edit that out. (Laughs)

LILIA: (laughs) I will. Okay, our topic is on the transition from VCR, VHS, and DVD rentals to online streaming. The first question is, how old were you when VCR, VHS, and DVD became a thing, and later, when digital became a big thing? 

00:00:37:24 - 00:01:05:21

ERG

So, VCR, I was 14. Okay. DVD, I think, is probably like college. So maybe 21, 22. So that would have been like in 1993, but they still weren't affordable. Yeah. And then streaming. We probably didn't start streaming anything till about five years ago. I was in my late forties. 

00:01:05:21 - 00:01:31:15

LILIA

Okay. What was your experience adapting to the transition to digital away from VHS, DVD, and VCR? And what did you think about these social changes?

00:01:32:15 - 00:01:58:12

ERG

Like, when you have DVDs, when they get scratched, you would have to deal with that. And that was problematic. A lot of my videos are still on videotape. So my wedding is on tape. Oh my son, all his first moments are also on videotape.

So I've got to get those transitioned—and then streaming and digital stuff. I mean like I said, because I came in the generation where we did not have personal computers in college. Everything has had to be self-taught. Luckily, my husband is very good about this, and he helps me out. But now I feel very confident in streaming and doing things like that and having apps on my phone—stuff like that.

00:01:58:28 - 00:02:19:10

Unknown

(LILIA) Okay. (ERG) And then what was the second part of that. (Lilia) And what did you think about these social changes. (ERG) What do you mean by that. (LILIA)I mean it's just like how it it kind of ties into the next question, how it kind of changed your everyday lifestyle, if at all. If you noticed any changes, was it more difficult to adapt to.

00:02:19:12 - 00:02:36:24

ERG

I mean, you made it easier because you didn't have to carry all this technology around. You have this I can stream Netflix on my phone now. And you don't have to keep up with X, Y and Z. It, I thought it made it very, it made it much easier and I definitely would not want to go backwards.

00:02:38:18 - 00:03:09:11

ERG

But I like my parents who are in their 80s. There's no way that they, they like the idea of probably have a Netflix or Amazon Prime, but there's no way that my dad could handle that. Yeah. He has a smartphone that, you know, it's, tech support. Yeah. Smartphone. 

LILIA 

Yep. I get it. Were there any challenges that you or others that you know, faced while adapting to these new technologies, whether it was learning it or just kind of want to throw your computer at the wall?

00:03:09:16 - 00:03:30:01

ERG

You know, because we didn't have any computer classes in high school. Yeah. I think they had one section. But the computers that we had or what we did, especially when I was in college, like I wanted C plus programing, I had never it was never taught like word processing Microsoft Word I learned how to type on a typewriter.

00:03:30:22 - 00:03:51:21

ERG

So again everything was self-taught. It was very hard to begin with and made me kind of nervous. I know a lot of people, think that they can mess something up and can't get it back, and, and there was a lot of anxiety, with that transition. But I feel, you know, again, like, I don't know everything.

00:03:51:23 - 00:04:11:10

ERG

And I have children that can help me out, but, you know, I've had to learn a lot. My generation has had to learn a lot. Yeah. And most of us have adapted well, I think. Yes. I'm in Gen X, so that's 1965 to about 1980. And and we've learned a lot and adapted. You know. Yeah. The generation before us.

00:04:11:12 - 00:04:38:29

ERG

No they're not going to do that. No they're not. In retrospect what were the pros and cons of these shifts in technology. You can get more data on things. So I remember when I was writing my thesis in graduate school, and I was still we we didn't have a lot of memory on computers and had to save it on disks, and it took like 6 or 7 deaths and it would be awful.

00:04:38:29 - 00:05:01:07

ERG

And then I'd have to get another. So that was extremely frustrating. You know, being able to have things that are quicker and easier to access and knowing that I've got more space and understanding what a megabyte is, what a gigabyte is, and the storage, that is a lot, lot more helpful. But again, I, I, I've enjoyed the technology push.

00:05:01:07 - 00:05:26:12

ERG

The one thing I don't like about it is that, I'm glad that I raised my children before this. Because I think that kids that are now being raised, a lot of them, you know, this is, this is shoved in their direction in order to occupy them and they're missing out on reading books. They're missing out on dealing with time that you just have to entertain yourself.

00:05:26:12 - 00:05:42:26

ERG

Like going to the doctor's office. We always read books, or we always did stories, or we always just talked about our day. And now I see, you know, like a two year old or one year old, the doctor's office and the parent says this. Yep, yep. And that is just. And then again, you know, my students, I say it's constant.

00:05:42:28 - 00:06:08:01

ERG

Yeah. They can't cut it all. No. Like you got to be professional and put it aside and make eye contact. So it's all like that. Yeah. No, I totally agree. Looking back, what are the biggest lasting impacts of this shift? I just like the fact that you have more information that's accessible. You do have to decipher what is true and what's not true.

00:06:08:02 - 00:06:29:26

ERG

 Yeah, but, you know, if I have a question, instead of having to go to a library and find the book or and I would have I mean, I've taken graduate classes since the shift and my papers, I can find so much more information to write about. Because it's more accessible than half in a way on interlibrary loan or going over there and looking something up.

00:06:29:28 - 00:06:54:27

ERG

So I do like that quick access to information. I do like the portability of it. And I think that has really changed. And then I mean, things like exposure, like medical records. And when I make a doctor's appointment, the reminder will shift through my cell phone, or I'll shift through the app and then I can find out my test, my blood test for that rather quickly, and have to rely on somebody to call me and tell.

00:06:55:00 - 00:07:04:29

LILIA

Yeah, I totally agree. So I love all that. Yeah, it is very helpful. How would you describe this shift in one word?

00:07:05:24 - 00:07:10:15

ERG

One word?

00:07:11:18 - 00:07:35:04

ERG

I think it's exciting. Yeah, I think it really is. I mean, again, I've embraced it because I've been forced to embrace it as an educator. As a parent. So I've everything about I've like except for again that this is just steering people away from having relationships. Yeah. And learning how to deal with, you know just empty time.

00:07:35:04 - 00:07:56:10

ERG

You've, you've got to, I think, a lot of parents are missing out on that. They definitely are. 

LILIA

Yeah, I totally agree. Do you miss VCR, VHS or DVD? And if so, what aspects specifically do you miss?

00:07:56:13 - 00:08:19:09

ERG

Can't miss it if it's never gone. And I still have all my children's Pixar stuff. We lived on it. They had portable DVD players that would hook into the car. Yeah. We had 13-hour (car) rides to go with it. 

LILIA

I mean, you can't argue about that.

00:08:19:15 - 00:08:40:27

ERG

No, you cannot, but no, I don't miss this at all. You know, I need to get the one thing that I'm really concerned about, which is that I need to get all my son's videos transferred over, and I'm about to send them to somebody. Yeah. And then my wedding video. I need to get that transferred into something. So, no, I don't miss it.

00:08:40:29 - 00:09:01:17

ERG

No, I still have a bunch, and I still have a DVD player. We got rid of the VCR a couple of years ago. Oh, maybe we haven't. So I can't watch my wedding videos anymore. But now I don't miss this at all. Okay, well that's fair. I don't blame you, since it does, and there's nothing in your computer, so, like.

00:09:01:23 - 00:09:37:29

ERG

No, I can't know. And there used to be some laptops where you could plug in CD's. Yeah, I remember that. And then like, you know, in the cars when I was 16, you had just, you had a radio and then you had a tape. And then like if you're real fancy, you had a plug in DVD and you plug in a CD player, but like when you went over a bob it was and then came you know they installed and I think my car right now it's like a 2016 I think it has a cassette and a DVD player.

00:09:38:12 - 00:09:54:03

ERG

May not have the cassette probably then, but yeah, it's just and then all that trying to figure out your song that you want, I mean it's just so much easier. Yeah. Just to plug something in or auto-connect it. It's fantastic. 

LILIA

Yeah. Okay. Well, that was all of my questions.

Dr. Steven Hawk Interviewed by Colby Hawk

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:28:08 

Steven: 

Okay. Go ahead. You can introduce yourself. Yes. My name is Doctor Steven Hawk and I am a licensed K through 12 English teacher. And I've been teaching in the public schools for eight years now. 

Colby: 

 Cool. So, about how old were you? When, you know, you grew up with the, you know, VHS, VCR and everything, what was it like with that being a big thing back in the day? 

00:00:28:08 - 00:00:48:04 

Colby: 

What was your experiences with everyday life and having it having this technology?  

Steven: 

Yeah. From, from the age where I was able to really watch movies, I was watching VHS tapes. So, I had a very small collection of VHS tapes and pretty much just rewatched the same 2 or 3 movies again and again and again and again. 

00:00:48:04 - 00:01:06:24 

Steven: 

As my mom would tell you, she would say, I wore out Land Before Time on VHS and Home Alone. Those are my two movies that I pretty much would play ‘em rewind ‘em, play ‘em, rewind ‘em. So as a child, that was my experience was just VHS tapes. You could go to a blockbuster and rent a VHS tape at that point. 

00:01:06:26 - 00:01:29:22 

Steven: 

But you owned very few and you were able to rent very few. If you were able to rent, it was usually like once a week. So, you didn't watch a lot of movies. And when you did, hopefully it was something you really liked, and you just watched it again and again and again.  

Colby: 

Cool. Yeah. And having the technology and everything and, you know, the, you know, VHS mainly for you. 

00:01:29:24 - 00:01:53:16 

Colby: 

what was it like transitioning, to this digital, you know, internet age when you have iPhones in your pocket, MacBooks and streaming and all of that?  

Steven: 

Yeah. So, the, the, the chain for me, was we went from VHS to DVD probably when I was about 13 years old, around 13. We, we had DVDs and that was a big deal. 

00:01:53:19 - 00:02:15:11 

Steven: 

And then DVDs evolved into Blu rays. So, the quality of the DVD DVDs got better. I remember it was my sophomore year of high school when MP3's became a thing. So no longer do we have to carry Walkmans to listen to music, but which is like a DVD, right? we transitioned to MP3's, and so the digital age kind of came upon us. 

00:02:15:15 - 00:02:42:09 

Steven: 

It wasn't until I was probably 22 that I had my first iPhone. So growing up, you know, we didn't have internet for the most part of my life. We didn't have any kind of apps or streaming until I was in my probably early 20s. And so that was a huge change because of the amount of things that you could be, I guess, exposed to through streaming. 

00:02:42:12 - 00:03:07:12 

Steven: 

It went from having to have a physical copy of a movie or a disc for music to being able to just choose from a vast digital library of different genres and different artists, to then seek out things which isn't something you were able to do. No more than just going to blockbuster and looking through the shelves, could you really seek out different genres and different types of things. 

00:03:07:12 - 00:03:29:03 

Steven: 

So, it in a lot of ways it was very freeing because it introduced you to a lot of new things, and you were able to discover a lot of new, tastes, genres, artists, things like that. So, yeah, I would say I was probably about 22 when streaming really caught on in the United States. 

00:03:29:05 - 00:03:49:05 

Colby: 

Now, if when you were 22, when you were 22, you would have just gotten out of college. So when you were still at UTK, what was that like, you know, going, you know, if you wanted to go watch something with your friends or, you know, catch up on the newest whatever, what what was that experience like before you had access to all this? 

00:03:49:06 - 00:04:11:11 

Steven: 

Yeah. So it was still DVDs were still the thing. You know, when I was in college, we hadn't moved to streaming quite yet. We had the internet age where you were streaming games online with friends and multiplayer and stuff like that. But not really movies. Movies and TV were not mainstream stream. They were not streamed to the mainstream yet. 

00:04:11:14 - 00:04:33:23 

Steven: 

And so for me, it was still going to the movies, you know, my friends and I, we would go to the movie theater if there was a movie coming out. You knew the release date and you would you would set a date and a time to go see the movie with your friends physically at a theater. So it wasn't like we stayed in our dorms or apartments and were able to stream the newest movie or TV show. 

00:04:33:25 - 00:05:03:12 

Steven: 

So, for me, that was it was still kind of what you would consider an old school experience. I know I've told you Facebook came out in 2005 when I first went to college. And, you know, so social media and the evolution of all streaming from internet, computer platforms, to digital media, for movies, and games, and music, that all really, you know, came mainstream after my college experience. Not during. 

00:05:03:15 - 00:05:25:03 

Colby: 

Now, the one big thing I think, and most everybody knows about right is blockbuster.  

Steven  

Yeah.  

Colby  

So, can you tell me a little bit more about your experiences with blockbuster? You know, was there like a membership program? Was there like certain deals that they had? What was it like going into one of these stores and renting and picking out your favorite flicks? 

00:05:25:05 - 00:05:51:07 

Steven: 

Yeah. If there was a membership program, I'm not aware. As a small child, I don't remember if there was a membership program. But what I do remember, and I tell people often, it was always like Christmas morning for me. I loved blockbuster. I think everyone kind of had the same experience where it was 1 or 2 times a week that you might be fortunate enough to go to a blockbuster and get to rent a new movie that you had never seen. 

00:05:51:10 - 00:06:09:23 

Steven: 

It was usually a Friday night, and you've been going to school all week and you're just looking forward to Friday night, because that's the one time your parents get to take you to blockbuster and you walk in the store, and it was like toys R us. You have all these movies, and it was just the covers of the movies with a DVD behind it. 

00:06:09:25 - 00:06:32:09 

Steven: 

And if you wanted to watch that movie, you had to take the cover out of the way and see if the DVD was still left. And if there was no DVD, then someone had already rented that movie. And if there were enough left, then you got to take one home. But very often they'd already been rented, and so some, some nights you would go for a certain movie, a new release, and it wasn't there. 

00:06:32:14 - 00:06:50:03 

Steven: 

And you'd be a little bummed, but you would just go pick out another movie and you would be excited because you didn't get to watch movies, but maybe once or twice a week. like, at all. You didn't get to watch any more than 1 or 2 movies a week. And so, it was a big deal to watch a movie back then, and it was a lot of fun. 

00:06:50:04 - 00:07:15:08 

Steven: 

It was something you really look forward to for Monday. You look forward to getting to Friday and Saturday so you could watch a movie and, and so yeah. It was really special back then. And, it had its. Looking back, you could say it had its difficulties. Like I said, you know, the movie may not be there for you to rent, but we dealt with that disappointment really well, I think, and just say, hey, maybe it'll be back by tomorrow. 

00:07:15:08 - 00:07:36:02 

Steven: 

Maybe we could rent it on Saturday night. If not, maybe next week. That'll be the movie. So, you know, we didn't get mad about it. It was part of the deal when you went to blockbuster. So I feel like, you know, movies were so much more special back then because they were so much more rare, and they're not rare anymore. 

00:07:36:05 - 00:07:56:08 

Steven: 

And so, you know, I miss I miss blockbuster, I miss the excitement of going into the store and the excitement of seeing if the DVD is still there and the excitement of taking it home and watching it. In the VHSs, you had to be kind and rewind is what you had to do. You know, you rewound the tape for the next person to use it. 

00:07:56:15 - 00:08:14:18 

Steven: 

When DVDs came along, it was special because you no longer had to rewind the movie. You could just return the disc. So that was a big deal for us. And then of course, as it moved to streaming, you could watch whatever you wanted whenever, you know, whatever day of the week. You didn't have to worry about rewinding or anything. 

00:08:14:18 - 00:08:37:21 

Steven: 

So, it was definitely an evolution. But, for me, blockbuster was really special. And not just blockbuster, but, you know, even Redbox later and, you know, any form of renting a movie during the week was really special.  

Colby: 

Yeah. And, you're talking about how, you know, now it's not as you know, it's not special. You know, it's not, you know, you have easy access to everything. 

00:08:37:21 - 00:09:10:19 

Colby: 

And, kind of on that note, like looking back at your experiences having, you know, dealt with DVDs, VHS, all this stuff, and then having Disney+ and Netflix, and, whatever, Hulu, whatever. You know, how has that changed, like your lifestyle or, you know, just society today and, and like what what would you say or like in some of the pros and cons with having this easy access through, you know, the internet or whatever, you know. 

00:09:10:24 - 00:09:35:04 

Steven: 

Yeah. Definitely, it's a double edged sword. To kind of go back to say, Netflix started as a DVD subscription process, and then that turned into a digital streaming process. I didn't jump into that process, probably for a couple of years into when Netflix became a digital subscription service. Netflix was the first one that I subscribed to. 

00:09:35:06 - 00:09:54:08 

Steven: 

It was fairly cheap, and I thought, hey, this seems pretty neat, and I gave it a try. And that was my first foray into the digital streaming world. And I enjoyed it. You know, my first experience was, or my first thought was this, this is nice. This is a lot better than having to, you know, get out of my house and drive to a store and it may or may not be there. 

00:09:54:08 - 00:10:20:06 

Steven: 

And so, there were some pros there. There were some benefits to that process. But I think as time went on, and this is a year's process, right? As more and more things started to become, digital based, streaming based platforms, news, TV, movies, eventually, taking you out of the theater, even, and just leaving you in your living room. 

00:10:20:08 - 00:10:50:07 

Steven: 

Then the layers with Covid. You know, people not getting out of their house. They marketed streaming really heavily during the Covid years, and the years to follow Covid, as something to keep you safe. So it was a marketing ploy to really get you to binge watch and stream. So like I said, it became over time, I believe more of a negative thing had a negative impact on my life because it's so addictive. 

00:10:50:09 - 00:11:27:02 

Steven: 

Right? That word binge is probably not a positively connotated word in any other setting. If you binge on food per se, that would not be good. But to binge on Netflix has been marketed as a culturally positive thing. It's something that's good to do. And while it may seem good and may seem fun, and you may find a show or, you know, a series of shows that have five, seasons, and you can watch all of them in a matter of two weeks, I’m not sure that that’s healthy. 

00:11:27:10 - 00:11:53:13 

Steven: 

And, in my own life, personally, I think, I think it has had a negative impact to be totally honest. It’s much easier after a hard day of work to go to my bedroom and shut the door away from my kids and silence the house and just consume right? To not give anymore, but to just consume, to binge. 

00:11:53:15 - 00:12:16:00 

Steven: 

And that's not good. And I know that that's not good. And so, I feel like now I'm having to self-police. I'm having to say this much is okay, but this much is dangerous. This is not good, not healthy. And so, there's it's a fine line. I'm not exactly sure where the line is now because it's all an evolving process. 

00:12:16:02 - 00:12:54:07 

Steven: 

But for me personally, I know it's taking time from my kids, taking time from me reading books and things that I used to do more of, perhaps taking time away from, you know, talking to my wife and communicating. Giving myself a pass when things have been difficult to just sit there and binge and to stream. So, while there have been good things, I think you are, you're probably, kind of like the genres of music. You’re able to discover more through streaming, things that you didn't know existed or things that you didn't know perhaps you were interested in. 

00:12:54:10 - 00:13:20:01 

Steven: 

But the negative effect, I think, perhaps outweighs the positive. And that's just my experience. I know some people would disagree.  

Colby: 

Yeah, there's a lot of differing opinions on, streaming and everything. And I think, I mean, I don't even have time to binge these days anymore, which is probably a good thing.  

Steven: 

Yeah, I think so.  

Colby: 

So we talked, you know, you touched on, like, the society and the shift and changes. 

00:13:20:01 - 00:13:51:08 

Colby: 

That was very good. With online and all that. Were there any, I guess, you kind of talked about this maybe a little bit, but like any challenges that you or any others that you observed or faced with this challenge of going away from, you know, more analog, whatever, to digital?   

Steven: 

Yeah. I mean, nothing, nothing dramatic or drastic, but I think the first challenge was, of course, going from DVD to streaming because we were in an in-between stage there for a while. 

00:13:51:13 - 00:14:07:23 

Steven: 

You had streaming apps out there, and you had Netflix and things that you could, you know, sign up for and partake of, but it's like you kind of had a toe in that world, but you were still stuck to DVDs and you rented from, you know, once blockbuster went out, it was Redbox or, you know, stuff like that. 

00:14:07:23 - 00:14:30:20 

Steven: 

And then when I went full into streaming, then, I guess the challenge is, you know, part of its financial, to be totally honest. You’re, you're paying for things regularly that you didn't used to pay for, you know. Monthly, you're paying at a minimum, People are probably paying for one streaming app. Lots of people are paying for five or more streaming apps. 

00:14:30:22 - 00:14:57:01 

Steven: 

So what used to be free through cable is now charged through apps. So that's been a struggle. Just a financial struggle is like, where's the line between what's an appropriate amount to spend on this form of entertainment and what's not? What’s healthy, what's not? I know this was not for me, but for for some elderly people, there was a huge problem trying to transition to the digital streaming apps. 

00:14:57:01 - 00:15:19:13 

Steven: 

And, you know, they they had their TVs that they liked, but they weren't smart TVs. So, you know, they had to figure that they needed a new TV and how to work a new remote and how to download apps and work apps. And that wasn't a problem for me. But I did deal and try to help a lot of elderly people through that transition process to understand how to stream content. 

00:15:19:16 - 00:15:40:17 

Steven: 

But for me, you know, like I said, it was just kind of a. It was a learning phase then followed by a self-policing phase of what's. What do I need and what do I not need? Because everyone who develops a streaming app tells you that you need it. And it's kind of hard to select the right service, you know? Do you go with Hulu? 

00:15:40:17 - 00:15:59:22 

Steven: 

Do you go with, you know, Comcast? Which one do you go with? There are just so many to choose from that I had to do my research before I landed on the one that I would pay for. Yeah.  

Colby: 

So I think we've already talked about, like, looking back, what were the big impacts on that. 

00:15:59:22 - 00:16:29:29 

Colby: 

I think we already touched that. 

Steven: 

 Yeah.  

Colby:  

How would you describe that shift in one word? Or that shift or like actually three things. How do you describe the shift?  The time before the like the VHS DVDs, all that. And then the time now after this shift. Like three, I know upped it but three.  

Steven: 

Yeah. I would say for the time past, nostalgic. Nostalgic is my word because I miss it. 

00:16:30:01 - 00:16:51:15 

Steven: 

It's it's something you didn't know that you would miss when it when when it went away. there was sadness when blockbuster went out of business, but there was also an acceptance that this is just the new way of things. And sometimes the more we get into the new way, the more I wish it could become the old way. 

00:16:51:18 - 00:17:19:01 

Steven: 

So nostalgic would be that one. For the transition, I would say exciting would be the word I would use for that. I can remember being the only, high schooler, on the way to a baseball team with a new iPod that streamed. Or not streamed but you know, had the MP3 downloaded music that I could just select from a playlist, while all my friends had a Walkman disc that would skip if, you know, they didn't hold it right. 

00:17:19:01 - 00:17:47:03 

Steven: 

And so for me, it was exciting. It was a new frontier. It was a new challenge to learn the technology of it. What was for for the, what was the last question for now? I would say the word is dangerous. For the reasons I've stated already, you know, the, mainly the social reasons. What is marketed to us is that we, again, should binge these things. 

00:17:47:09 - 00:18:15:27 

Steven: 

We need these things. We can't live without these things. There's a lot of clever marketing that goes into it, and a lot of people that are persuaded by that marketing, including me to some extent. Right. Because I stream. I do watch shows and a lot of it, a lot more than I used to. What used to be one movie a week has turned into ten movies a week. And  20 episodes a week. And that's dangerous. 

00:18:15:28 - 00:18:38:02 

Steven: 

It’s dangerous because it's taking me from things that are more important. And it's giving me a pass when I'm tired to say I don't have to struggle with difficult things. I can just. I deserve this. To just sit quietly in my room, away from my children, away from my wife, away from whomever, and reward myself. I think that's a dangerous notion. 

00:18:38:04 - 00:18:50:15 

Steven: 

So dangerous, I think, would be the word. 

Colby: 

Cool. Yeah. And then. Yeah my battery’s giving me the warning. I think I've got 1 or 2. One more question. 

00:18:50:15 - 00:19:10:24 

Colby: 

Okay, so that two part thing, I guess if you could give me one more comment, like do you miss it? You know, do you miss the VHS? You know, rewinding and you know, having, you know, all that the blockbuster and what do you. What, if anything, would you change today? And then what were your favorite, you know, tapes? Or your. 

00:19:10:28 - 00:19:34:01 

Steven: 

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I mentioned earlier, my two favorites when I was young was Land Before Time. The original Land Before time. The first one. Petrie, Longneck, and all the, Sharptooth. That was, I've watched that on repeat, I think. And, and then later when I was a little older, it was, Home Alone, the original Home Alone with Macaulay Culkin. And I just thought that was hilarious. 

00:19:34:04 - 00:19:53:05 

Steven: 

It’s kind of slapstick humor, you know? And so those are the two that were my favorite. As far as, you know, do I miss it? Absolutely. I miss the way things were, because I think I missed the way I was, and my family was, and other people were. That's what I missed. It's not that I miss blockbuster itself. 

00:19:53:07 - 00:20:21:08 

Steven: 

I miss the type of world that we lived in when we still had a blockbuster. When movies were still special. I didn't say earlier, but you know, as a, as a ninth-grade high school teacher, when we, when I was young and we had a special movie day that was like the best day ever. And so, as a teacher, I thought, hey, when they've really worked hard, I'm going to give them a special movie day occasionally, because I love that when I was young. And I tried that. 

00:20:21:11 - 00:20:45:07 

Steven: 

And I've learned that you can't get these kids to focus on a movie anymore. They're so desensitized. They're so overstimulated. They won't even watch a movie anymore. They don't care about movies anymore. I miss how much people cared about movies. So, yeah, I miss it. It's not that I miss VHS again. It's just I miss the way people were. 

00:20:45:10 - 00:21:03:00 

Steven: 

And I don't think we can ever get that back. I think we're too far away from that. I don't think we get back to that. So as far as the second part, you know, what could, I what would I change if I could change something? What would I want to change I don't think I have the power to change. 

00:21:03:02 - 00:21:23:03 

Steven: 

I want families to sit together on a couch on a Friday night, like I did with a couple pizzas and a show and watch it together, and laugh together, and have time together like family should. That's what I want to happen. but I can't make that happen for other people. I can try to make it happen in my home. 

00:21:23:05 - 00:21:47:25 

Steven: 

And, and I've been trying to do that more, you know? I've been consciously trying to do that more in my own home. But I can't do it for other peoples. And so, what I'm seeing in our culture is a shift away from, from loving one another, from spending time, quality time together, and for giving ourselves, as parents, a pass for spending time with our kids. 

00:21:47:25 - 00:22:08:07 

Steven: 

And sometimes, even for parenting our kids. Because it's easier just to put them in front of an iPad or a TV screen and just let them watch a movie than it is to discipline, or to ask them how their day was, or to troubleshoot things in their lives, or to help them with their math homework. 

00:22:08:09 - 00:22:28:24 

Steven: 

It’s easier just to let them stream something. So I don't know how we fix that, Colby. That's that's something that I've thought about a lot lately. How do we, as a society, as a culture, get back to at least some part of what we used to be when blockbuster still existed? I don't know, I don't know the answer to that. 

00:22:28:24 - 00:22:52:17 

Steven: 

I think it's a. It’s a question that people have to challenge themselves with personally. They have to know who they are, what they've become, what they want to be, and then find a way to, to find that middle ground between what's enough streaming and what's too much streaming for themselves as parents, as adults, and also for their children. 

00:22:52:19 - 00:23:00:15 

Steven: 

And I just don't have a good answer to that, even though I wish I could. 

Colby: 

 Sweet. That was a very good answer.

Cole Kennedy:

00:00:01

All right, so would you mind standing your name for the record?

00:00:05

Paul James Navis:

I will not state my name for the record. The record can kiss my ass.

00:00:12

Cole Kennedy:

Okay.

00:00:13

Paul James Navis:

All right. Would you like me to give you a serious answer now? I'm assuming you're gonna cut this in post.

00:00:18

Cole Kennedy:

Yes, we are.

00:00:19

Paul James Navis:

All right. My name for the record is Paul James Navis.

00:00:25

Cole Kennedy:

All right, thank you. So now we'll get into the questions. So, first of all, how old were you when VCR, VHS, or DVD became a thing?

00:00:40

Paul James Navis:

Probably before I was born. VHS. Definitely before I was born. At least before I could think DVD. I think DVDs were out by the time I really knew what a DVD was.

00:00:58

Cole Kennedy:

And, like, what year was that?

00:01:01

Paul James Navis:

Would you say, Cole, you should be asking someone like, twice my age these questions? What is this? This is what the group came up with. Oh, my God. I don't know. Before I was born. When did. Look up. When did DVDs become a thing?

00:01:23

Cole Kennedy:

90s.

00:01:24

Paul James Navis:

I was born in 2004. Please keep this in there where I criticize this. Please keep this in.

Okay. DVDs were made before I was born, and I knew them from somewhat of an early age. But my parents also tried to restrict my technology. They're cool. There's something you can use.

00:01:48

Cole Kennedy:

Nice. What was your favorite thing that you liked to watch during those DVD days?

00:01:56

Paul James Navis:

DVD days? I mean, I own a lot of movies. When I was younger, whether it's, like, kids cartoons, or just classic movies, ultimately, you know, you'd watch a little. A little bit of anything.

I had, like, a DVD player growing up, which was mainly used for, like, long trips and that type of thing. So there's my answer.

00:02:23

Cole Kennedy:

All right, how about when digital, when you remember everything, swapping over to the digital?

00:02:30

Paul James Navis:

So I owned a DVD player for a very long time, but in terms of, like, the switch to digital, I kind of. I really didn't use YouTube growing up. I moved to South Carolina the summer before my fifth-grade year. And I feel like that's sort of when things started to shift, was around that period of time. I mean, my parents chose to cut cable for reasons related to the cable company not wanting to fix the cable antenna. And also at the time, cable was cheaper and much more of sort of monopoly. I mean, you had a couple of them out. Hulu, Netflix. But, like, nowadays, you get cables kind of becoming the new cable in certain regards.

00:03:23

Cole Kennedy:

And just for reference, around what year was this?

00:03:33

Paul James Navis:

I'm gonna say around 2014ish. To my best recollection. I don't know if I would give a specific year, but I would say, you know, somewhere between like 2010 and 2016.

00:03:53

Cole Kennedy:

Okay, so what was your experience adapting to the transition to digital and away from DVD and like VHS and what do you think of how do you think this impacted society?

00:04:08

Paul James Navis:

I mean, they still sell DVDs. It's just becoming a lot less of a smart purchase, I would say primarily due to streaming and that kind of thing. There's more out there at a cheaper price where you don't necessarily own something, but you can at least rent something. Renting, I think has sort of killed DVDs a little bit. I mean, I know there used to be DVD rental places, which I did a couple times in like fifth grade, but that's about it. I mean my family never really rented a whole lot of movies. Trying to keep, because again I was a younger kid when this was happening. So, trying to keep technology to the wayside for the most part. And I think that's another big thing that you see nowadays, where you see a lot of kids raised with technology because it's digital, easier to access from a much younger age. And I think generally in certain ways, I think it's been a positive thing for older people that things are much easier to access, but potentially detrimental to some of the youth in this country having access to those digital entertainment at a much younger age.

00:05:26

Cole Kennedy:

You mentioned that you and some of your friends went down to this video of rental stores.

Are we talking like Blockbuster-style stores or…

00:05:34

Paul James Navis:

Yeah, we're talking like a Blockbuster-style stores. My parents never really did anything just again, we weren't really big about going and running a movie. I mean, I went to the movie theater a few times as a kid and we had a bunch of DVDs at home that you'd buy at like a Target or something or again with, with cable. You'd get a lot of that too.

00:06:02

Cole Kennedy:

Okay.

00:06:03

Paul James Navis:

But you know, when you, when you're with friends, parents, sometimes they'll go rent something that you watch on like a sleepover or something.

00:06:14

Cole Kennedy:

And how did these changes statistically affect your everyday life, would you say?

00:06:23

Paul James Navis:

I would say technology started to play a larger role in my life at that point in time. I'm kind of at an interesting age where it's hard for me to necessarily say how much of this is the shift in technology itself self and the shift in age. Technology has shifted with me to the point where like perhaps I would just be using things like YouTube or things that are digital in, in a different format or maybe it's just that again, that shifted. Digital really did make things much easier to access, which I think has related to a lot of people being much more reliant on technology, especially for entertainment in certain ways, I think detrimental. You know, people procrastinate, that type of thing, which I know I'm very guilty of. So I. I would say generally, I think it's a benefit in that it gives a lot of entertainment and a lot of informational stuff being much easier to access. But it's also a detriment in the sense that it can also be a large time sink if you're not careful.

00:07:44

Cole Kennedy:

What were any challenges that you or others faced adapting to this shift?

00:07:52

Paul James Navis:

I would not say I had any challenges in that shift. Again, as a kid I didn't watch a whole lot of TV. I mean, I had some DVDs that I watch. I still own a DVD player somewhere. It's just not really used anymore. I. I think again, I was right about that age where things started to shift to where it was sort of a little bit natural, you know, I mean, I'm still young enough to wear. There were newer phones out, but I had like a. Not flip phone per se, but like a slider phone without access to the Internet or things like that. So moving from sort of moving into the digital frame, I think was more of a, for me instance of growing up than it was a shift in technology itself.

00:08:58

Cole Kennedy:

Looking back, what would you say the biggest impact of this transition was?

00:09:06

Paul James Navis:

I think the biggest thing is sort of having technology having the wide range of Internet and entertainment sort of at your fingertips. Whether you consider that good or bad is kind of up to interpretation and one's use of it. But what I'll say is, is this, is that I came up at an age to where it didn't become so much of an addiction to where I think it's worrisome. I do worry for some of the kids nowadays where you're sort of, again, the kids right now are really the kids, the first kids that are gonna come out into this world, born with it from day one. And that's something I don't think we've seen the consequences of fully.

00:10:08

Cole Kennedy:

Okay, I'm building on this theme of shifts. How would you describe this shift in one word and please explain your answer.

00:10:38

Paul James Navis:

I'm going to say information because I think that that's the easiest word that I can do it. I mean, information used to be limited. It used to need to be on a disk or on a VHS. Now information, whether or not that's helpful information, entertainment information, really anything is at your fingertips. And I think that's a good thing. I think that also makes it very easy to get anything. I mean, there's a lot of misinformation out there that wouldn't necessarily have been put out there before things went digital with things such as YouTube or the Internet, where you used to rely on print sources or things needing to be digitalized onto a computer. And it's just so much easier to access now to the point where, again, I think it's a good thing in many ways and a bad thing in many ways.

00:11:45

Cole Kennedy

So, final question. Do you miss anything from the DVD days? And if so, what specific aspects do you miss?

00:12:03

Paul James Navis:

I don't necessarily know that I have anything that I miss so much as things that I dislike now. I mean, there's a level of nostalgia when you see, like, DVDs or VHS or what have you, just due to, again, the age that I grew up with some of this stuff. But I think the number one thing I'm going to say I miss isn't even about that, but it's the fact that people weren't relying on it. People didn't, you know, because DVDs were something you'd have to, you know, insert into a DVD player or have a disc of whatever information or entertainment that you have. It limited the scale. It could be for that period of times where people used to talk with one another, you know, go outside into the world to where I feel like that's seen less and less with a phone at people's fingertips. It's a lot of people get sucked into it. And so I think the thing I miss most isn't the thing itself of DVDs and VHS. It's actually the lack of its influence, or really the influence of digital that came after on people's lives constantly.

00:13:29

Cole Kennedy:

All right, thank you, Paul.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Colby Hawk Interviewing Steven Hawk

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:28:08

Steven:

Okay. Go ahead. You can introduce yourself. Yes. My name is Doctor Steven Hawk and I am a licensed K through 12 English teacher. And I've been teaching in the public schools for eight years now.

Colby:

Cool. So, about how old were you? When, you know, you grew up with the, you know, VHS, VCR and everything, what was it like with that being a big thing back in the day?

00:00:28:08 - 00:00:48:04

Colby:

What was your experiences with everyday life and having it having this technology? 

Steven:

Yeah. From, from the age where I was able to really watch movies, I was watching VHS tapes. So, I had a very small collection of VHS tapes and pretty much just rewatched the same 2 or 3 movies again and again and again and again.

00:00:48:04 - 00:01:06:24

Steven:

As my mom would tell you, she would say, I wore out Land Before Time on VHS and Home Alone. Those are my two movies that I pretty much would play ‘em rewind ‘em, play ‘em, rewind ‘em. So as a child, that was my experience was just VHS tapes. You could go to a blockbuster and rent a VHS tape at that point.

00:01:06:26 - 00:01:29:22

Steven:

But you owned very few and you were able to rent very few. If you were able to rent, it was usually like once a week. So, you didn't watch a lot of movies. And when you did, hopefully it was something you really liked, and you just watched it again and again and again. 

Colby:

Cool. Yeah. And having the technology and everything and, you know, the, you know, VHS mainly for you.

00:01:29:24 - 00:01:53:16

Colby:

what was it like transitioning, to this digital, you know, internet age when you have iPhones in your pocket, MacBooks and streaming and all of that? 

Steven:

Yeah. So, the, the, the chain for me, was we went from VHS to DVD probably when I was about 13 years old, around 13. We, we had DVDs and that was a big deal.

00:01:53:19 - 00:02:15:11

Steven:

And then DVDs evolved into Blu rays. So, the quality of the DVD DVDs got better. I remember it was my sophomore year of high school when MP3's became a thing. So no longer do we have to carry Walkmans to listen to music, but which is like a DVD, right? we transitioned to MP3's, and so the digital age kind of came upon us.

00:02:15:15 - 00:02:42:09

Steven:

It wasn't until I was probably 22 that I had my first iPhone. So growing up, you know, we didn't have internet for the most part of my life. We didn't have any kind of apps or streaming until I was in my probably early 20s. And so that was a huge change because of the amount of things that you could be, I guess, exposed to through streaming.

00:02:42:12 - 00:03:07:12

Steven:

It went from having to have a physical copy of a movie or a disc for music to being able to just choose from a vast digital library of different genres and different artists, to then seek out things which isn't something you were able to do. No more than just going to blockbuster and looking through the shelves, could you really seek out different genres and different types of things.

00:03:07:12 - 00:03:29:03

Steven:

So, it in a lot of ways it was very freeing because it introduced you to a lot of new things, and you were able to discover a lot of new, tastes, genres, artists, things like that. So, yeah, I would say I was probably about 22 when streaming really caught on in the United States.

00:03:29:05 - 00:03:49:05

Colby:

Now, if when you were 22, when you were 22, you would have just gotten out of college. So when you were still at UTK, what was that like, you know, going, you know, if you wanted to go watch something with your friends or, you know, catch up on the newest whatever, what what was that experience like before you had access to all this?

00:03:49:06 - 00:04:11:11

Steven:

Yeah. So it was still DVDs were still the thing. You know, when I was in college, we hadn't moved to streaming quite yet. We had the internet age where you were streaming games online with friends and multiplayer and stuff like that. But not really movies. Movies and TV were not mainstream stream. They were not streamed to the mainstream yet.

00:04:11:14 - 00:04:33:23

Steven:

And so for me, it was still going to the movies, you know, my friends and I, we would go to the movie theater if there was a movie coming out. You knew the release date and you would you would set a date and a time to go see the movie with your friends physically at a theater. So it wasn't like we stayed in our dorms or apartments and were able to stream the newest movie or TV show.

00:04:33:25 - 00:05:03:12

Steven:

So, for me, that was it was still kind of what you would consider an old school experience. I know I've told you Facebook came out in 2005 when I first went to college. And, you know, so social media and the evolution of all streaming from internet, computer platforms, to digital media, for movies, and games, and music, that all really, you know, came mainstream after my college experience. Not during.

00:05:03:15 - 00:05:25:03

Colby:

Now, the one big thing I think, and most everybody knows about right is blockbuster. 

Steven 

Yeah. 

Colby 

So, can you tell me a little bit more about your experiences with blockbuster? You know, was there like a membership program? Was there like certain deals that they had? What was it like going into one of these stores and renting and picking out your favorite flicks?

00:05:25:05 - 00:05:51:07

Steven:

Yeah. If there was a membership program, I'm not aware. As a small child, I don't remember if there was a membership program. But what I do remember, and I tell people often, it was always like Christmas morning for me. I loved blockbuster. I think everyone kind of had the same experience where it was 1 or 2 times a week that you might be fortunate enough to go to a blockbuster and get to rent a new movie that you had never seen.

00:05:51:10 - 00:06:09:23

Steven:

It was usually a Friday night, and you've been going to school all week and you're just looking forward to Friday night, because that's the one time your parents get to take you to blockbuster and you walk in the store, and it was like toys R us. You have all these movies, and it was just the covers of the movies with a DVD behind it.

00:06:09:25 - 00:06:32:09

Steven:

And if you wanted to watch that movie, you had to take the cover out of the way and see if the DVD was still left. And if there was no DVD, then someone had already rented that movie. Andif there were enough left, then you got to take one home. But very often they'd already been rented, and so some, some nights you would go for a certain movie, a new release, and it wasn't there.

00:06:32:14 - 00:06:50:03

Steven:

And you'd be a little bummed, but you would just go pick out another movie and you would be excited because you didn't get to watch movies, but maybe once or twice a week. like, at all. You didn't get to watch any more than 1 or 2 movies a week. And so, it was a big deal to watch a movie back then, and it was a lot of fun.

00:06:50:04 - 00:07:15:08

Steven:

It was something you really look forward to for Monday. You look forward to getting to Friday and Saturday so you could watch a movie and, and so yeah. It was really special back then. And, it had its. Looking back, you could say it had its difficulties. Like I said, you know, the movie may not be there for you to rent, but we dealt with that disappointment really well, I think, and just say, hey, maybe it'll be back by tomorrow.

00:07:15:08 - 00:07:36:02

Steven:

Maybe we could rent it on Saturday night. If not, maybe next week. That'll be the movie. So, you know, we didn't get mad about it. It was part of the deal when you went to blockbuster. So I feel like, you know, movies were so much more special back then because they were so much more rare, and they're not rare anymore.

00:07:36:05 - 00:07:56:08

Steven:

And so, you know, I miss I miss blockbuster, I miss the excitement of going into the store and the excitement of seeing if the DVD is still there and the excitement of taking it home and watching it. In the VHSs, you had to be kind and rewind is what you had to do. You know, you rewound the tape for the next person to use it.

00:07:56:15 - 00:08:14:18

Steven:

When DVDs came along, it was special because you no longer had to rewind the movie. Youcould just return the disc. So that was a big deal for us. And then of course, as it moved to streaming, you could watch whatever you wanted whenever, you know, whatever day of the week. You didn't have to worry about rewinding or anything.

00:08:14:18 - 00:08:37:21

Steven:

So, it was definitely an evolution. But, for me, blockbuster was really special. And not just blockbuster, but, you know, even Redbox later and, you know, any form of renting a movie during the week was really special. 

Colby:

Yeah. And, you're talking about how, you know, now it's not as you know, it's not special. You know, it's not, you know, you have easy access to everything.

00:08:37:21 - 00:09:10:19

Colby:

And, kind of on that note, like looking back at your experiences having, you know, dealt with DVDs, VHS, all this stuff, and then having Disney+ and Netflix, and, whatever, Hulu, whatever. You know, how has that changed, like your lifestyle or, you know, just society today and, and like what what would you say or like in some of the pros and cons with having this easy access through, you know, the internet or whatever, you know.

00:09:10:24 - 00:09:35:04

Steven:

Yeah. Definitely, it's a double edged sword. To kind of go back to say, Netflix started as a DVD subscription process, and then that turned into a digital streaming process. I didn't jump into that process, probably for a couple of years into when Netflix became a digital subscription service. Netflix was the first one that I subscribed to.

00:09:35:06 - 00:09:54:08

Steven:

It was fairly cheap, and I thought, hey, this seems pretty neat, and I gave it a try. And that was my first foray into the digital streaming world. And I enjoyed it. You know, my first experience was, or my first thought was this, this is nice. This is a lot better than having to, you know, get out of my house and drive to a store and it may or may not be there.

00:09:54:08 - 00:10:20:06

Steven:

And so, there were some pros there. There were some benefits to that process. But I think as time went on, and this is a year's process, right? As more and more things started to become, digital based, streaming based platforms, news, TV, movies, eventually, taking you out of the theater,even, and just leaving you in your living room.

00:10:20:08 - 00:10:50:07

Steven:

Then the layers with Covid. You know, people not getting out of their house. They marketed streaming really heavily during the Covid years, and the years to follow Covid, as something to keep you safe. So it was a marketing ploy to really get you to binge watch and stream. So like I said, it became over time, I believe more of a negative thing had a negative impact on my life because it's so addictive.

00:10:50:09 - 00:11:27:02

Steven:

Right? That word binge is probably not a positively connotated word in any other setting. If you binge on food per se, that would not be good. But to binge on Netflix has been marketed as a culturally positive thing. It's something that's good to do. And while it may seem good and may seem fun, and you may find a show or, you know, a series of shows that have five, seasons, and you can watch all of them in a matter of two weeks, I’m not sure that that’s healthy.

00:11:27:10 - 00:11:53:13

Steven:

And, in my own life, personally, I think, I think it has had a negative impact to be totally honest. It’s much easier after a hard day of work to go to my bedroom and shut the door away from my kids and silence the house and just consume right? To not give anymore, but to just consume, to binge.

00:11:53:15 - 00:12:16:00

Steven:

And that's not good. And I know that that's not good. And so, I feel like now I'm having to self-police. I'm having to say this much is okay, but this much is dangerous. This is not good, not healthy. And so, there's it's a fine line. I'm not exactly sure where the line is now because it's allan evolving process.

00:12:16:02 - 00:12:54:07

Steven:

But for me personally, I know it's taking time from my kids, taking time from me reading books and things that I used to do more of, perhaps taking time away from, you know, talking to my wife and communicating. Giving myself a pass when things have been difficult to just sit there and binge and to stream. So, while there have been good things, I think you are, you're probably, kind of like the genres of music. You’re able to discover more through streaming, things that you didn't know existed or things that you didn't know perhaps you were interested in.

00:12:54:10 - 00:13:20:01

Steven:

But the negative effect, I think, perhaps outweighs the positive. And that's just my experience. I know some people would disagree. 

Colby:

Yeah, there's a lot of differing opinions on, streaming and everything. And I think, I mean, I don't even have time to binge these days anymore, which is probably a good thing. 

Steven:

Yeah, I think so. 

Colby:

So we talked, you know, you touched on, like, the society and the shift and changes.

00:13:20:01 - 00:13:51:08

Colby:

That was very good. With online and all that. Were there any, I guess, you kind of talked about this maybe a little bit, but like any challenges that you or any others that you observed or faced with this challenge of going away from, you know, more analog, whatever, to digital? 

Steven:

Yeah. I mean, nothing, nothing dramatic or drastic, but I think the first challenge was, of course, going from DVD to streaming because we were in an in-between stage there for a while.

00:13:51:13 - 00:14:07:23

Steven:

You had streaming apps out there, and you had Netflix and things that you could, you know, sign up for and partake of, but it's like you kind of had a toe in that world, but you were still stuck to DVDs and you rented from, you know, once blockbuster went out, it was Redbox or, you know, stuff like that.

00:14:07:23 - 00:14:30:20

Steven:

And then when I went full into streaming, then, I guess the challenge is, you know, part of its financial, to be totally honest. You’re, you're paying for things regularly that you didn't used to pay for, you know. Monthly, you're paying at a minimum, People are probably paying for one streaming app. Lots of people are paying for five or more streaming apps.

00:14:30:22 - 00:14:57:01

Steven:

So what used to be free through cable is now charged through apps. So that's been a struggle. Just a financial struggle is like, where's the line between what's an appropriate amount to spend on this form of entertainment and what's not? What’s healthy, what's not? I know this was not for me, but for for some elderly people, there was a huge problem trying to transition to the digital streaming apps.

00:14:57:01 - 00:15:19:13

Steven:

And, you know, they they had their TVs that they liked, but they weren't smart TVs. So, you know, they had to figure that they needed a new TV and how to work a new remote and how to download apps and work apps. And that wasn't a problem for me. But I did deal and try to help a lot of elderly people through that transition process to understand how to stream content.

00:15:19:16 - 00:15:40:17

Steven:

But for me, you know, like I said, it was just kind of a. It was a learning phase then followed by a self-policing phase of what's. What do I need and what do I not need? Because everyone who develops a streaming app tells you that you need it. And it's kind of hard to select the right service, you know? Do you go with Hulu?

00:15:40:17 - 00:15:59:22

Steven:

Do you go with, you know, Comcast? Which one do you go with? There are just so many to choose from that I had to do my research before I landed on the one that I would pay for. Yeah. 

Colby:

So I think we've already talked about, like, looking back, what were the big impacts on that.

00:15:59:22 - 00:16:29:29

Colby:

I think we already touched that.

Steven:

Yeah. 

Colby:

How would you describe that shift in one word? Or that shift or like actually three things. How do you describe the shift? The time before the like the VHS DVDs, all that. And then the time now after this shift. Like three, I know upped it but three. 

Steven:

Yeah. I would say for the time past, nostalgic. Nostalgic is my word because I miss it.

00:16:30:01 - 00:16:51:15

Steven:

It's it's something you didn't know that you would miss when it when when it went away. there was sadness when blockbuster went out of business, but there was also an acceptance that this is just the new way of things. And sometimes the more we get into the new way, the more I wish it could become the old way.

00:16:51:18 - 00:17:19:01

Steven:

So nostalgic would be that one. For the transition, I would say exciting would be the word I would use for that. I can remember being the only, high schooler, on the way to a baseball team with a new iPod that streamed. Or not streamed but you know, had the MP3 downloaded music that I could just select from a playlist, while all my friends had a Walkman disc that would skip if, you know, they didn't hold it right.

00:17:19:01 - 00:17:47:03

Steven:

And so for me, it was exciting. It was a new frontier. It was a new challenge to learn the technology of it. What was for for the, what was the last question for now? I would say the word is dangerous. For the reasons I've stated already, you know, the, mainly the social reasons. What is marketed to us is that we, again, should binge these things.

00:17:47:09 - 00:18:15:27

Steven:

We need these things. We can't live without these things. There's a lot of clever marketing that goes into it, and a lot of people that are persuaded by that marketing, including me to some extent. Right. Because I stream. I do watch shows and a lot of it, a lot more than I used to. What used to be one movie a week has turned into ten movies a week. And 20 episodes a week. Andthat's dangerous.

00:18:15:28 - 00:18:38:02

Steven:

It’s dangerous because it's taking me from things that are more important. And it's giving me a pass when I'm tired to say I don't have to struggle with difficult things. I can just. I deserve this. To just sit quietly in my room, away from my children, away from my wife, away from whomever, and reward myself. I think that's a dangerous notion.

00:18:38:04 - 00:18:50:15

Steven:

So dangerous, I think, would be the word.

Colby:

Cool. Yeah. And then. Yeah my battery’s giving me the warning. I think I've got 1 or 2. One more question.

00:18:50:15 - 00:19:10:24

Colby:

Okay, so that two part thing, I guess if you could give me one more comment, like do you miss it? You know, do you miss the VHS? You know, rewinding and you know, having, you know, all that the blockbuster and what do you. What, if anything, would you change today? And then what were your favorite, you know, tapes? Or your.

00:19:10:28 - 00:19:34:01

Steven:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I mentioned earlier, my two favorites when I was young was Land Before Time. The original Land Before time. The first one. Petrie, Longneck, and all the, Sharptooth.That was, I've watched that on repeat, I think. And, and then later when I was a little older, it was, Home Alone, the original Home Alone with Macaulay Culkin. And I just thought that was hilarious.

00:19:34:04 - 00:19:53:05

Steven:

It’s kind of slapstick humor, you know? And so those are the two that were my favorite. As far as, you know, do I miss it? Absolutely. I miss the way things were, because I think I missed the way I was, and my family was, and other people were. That's what I missed. It's not that I miss blockbuster itself.

00:19:53:07 - 00:20:21:08

Steven:

I miss the type of world that we lived in when we still had a blockbuster. When movies were still special. I didn't say earlier, but you know, as a, as a ninth-grade high school teacher, when we,when I was young and we had a special movie day that was like the best day ever. And so, as a teacher, I thought, hey, when they've really worked hard, I'm going to give them a special movie day occasionally, because I love that when I was young. And I tried that.

00:20:21:11 - 00:20:45:07

Steven:

And I've learned that you can't get these kids to focus on a movie anymore. They're so desensitized. They're so overstimulated. They won't even watch a movie anymore. They don't care about movies anymore. I miss how much people cared about movies. So, yeah, I miss it. It's not that I miss VHS again. It's just I miss the way people were.

00:20:45:10 - 00:21:03:00

Steven:

And I don't think we can ever get that back. I think we're too far away from that. I don't think we get back to that. So as far as the second part, you know, what could, I what would I change if I could change something? What would I want to change I don't think I have the power to change.

00:21:03:02 - 00:21:23:03

Steven:

I want families to sit together on a couch on a Friday night, like I did with a couple pizzas and a show and watch it together, and laugh together, and have time together like family should. That's what I want to happen. but I can't make that happen for other people. I can try to make it happen in my home.

00:21:23:05 - 00:21:47:25

Steven:

And, and I've been trying to do that more, you know? I've been consciously trying to do that more in my own home. But I can't do it for other peoples. And so, what I'm seeing in our culture is a shift away from, from loving one another, from spending time, quality time together, and for giving ourselves, as parents, a pass for spending time with our kids.

00:21:47:25 - 00:22:08:07

Steven:

And sometimes, even for parenting our kids. Because it's easier just to put them in front of an iPad or a TV screen and just let them watch a movie than it is to discipline, or to ask them how their day was, or to troubleshoot things in their lives, or to help them with their math homework.

00:22:08:09 - 00:22:28:24

Steven:

It’s easier just to let them stream something. So I don't know how we fix that, Colby. That's that's something that I've thought about a lot lately. How do we, as a society, as a culture, get back to at least some part of what we used to be when blockbuster still existed? I don't know, I don't know the answer to that.

00:22:28:24 - 00:22:52:17

Steven:

I think it's a. It’s a question that people have to challenge themselves with personally. They have to know who they are, what they've become, what they want to be, and then find a way to, to find that middle ground between what's enough streaming and what's too much streaming for themselves as parents, as adults, and also for their children.

00:22:52:19 - 00:23:00:15

Steven:

And I just don't have a good answer to that, even though I wish I could.

Colby:

Sweet. That was a very good answer. 

1. How old were you when VCR/VHS/DVD became a thing, and later, when Digital became a big thing? 

2. What was your experience adapting to the transition to digital away from VCR/VHS/DVD, and what did you think about these social changes?

3. What, if anything, did these shifts change in your everyday lifestyle? (e.x. Online streaming platforms, etc.)

4. Were there any challenges that you or others faced while adapting to these new technologies?

5. In retrospect, what were the pros and cons of these shifts in technology and, by extension, society?

6. Looking back, what are the biggest lasting impacts of this shift?

7. How would you describe this shift in one word? Explain why you chose this word

8. Do you miss it? If so, what aspects specifically do you miss?