I was trying to describe to my Gen Z daughters what it was like back in the '80s and '90s - how new episodes of TV shows only aired once a week (or even less, sometimes it would be a rerun!), and how the next day at school or at work everyone would be talking about it. Even if your family had a VCR, they were quite finicky to program and…
I was trying to describe to my Gen Z daughters what it was like back in the '80s and '90s - how new episodes of TV shows only aired once a week (or even less, sometimes it would be a rerun!), and how the next day at school or at work everyone would be talking about it. Even if your family had a VCR, they were quite finicky to program and it was not uncommon to get home and find out it only recorded half the program or didn't record at all, and now you had just missed THE BEST EPISODE EVER, THAT ALL YOUR FRIENDS WERE TALKING ABOUT and you'd have to wait until some unspecified time in the future when it aired as a rerun. Or how Christmas specials were only aired once a year, at Christmas - and if you weren't home that night, you didn't get to watch Charlie Brown or Rudolph or whatever that year.
They were just gobsmacked by this concept.
I do agree with your grandmother to some extent; the invention of the videocassette was the beginning of the end of the shared culture. While I spent most of my teenage and young adult years (80's and 90s) loudly proclaiming how totally lame most mainstream pop culture was, there is something to be said for the shared experience.
I was trying to describe to my Gen Z daughters what it was like back in the '80s and '90s - how new episodes of TV shows only aired once a week (or even less, sometimes it would be a rerun!), and how the next day at school or at work everyone would be talking about it. Even if your family had a VCR, they were quite finicky to program and it was not uncommon to get home and find out it only recorded half the program or didn't record at all, and now you had just missed THE BEST EPISODE EVER, THAT ALL YOUR FRIENDS WERE TALKING ABOUT and you'd have to wait until some unspecified time in the future when it aired as a rerun. Or how Christmas specials were only aired once a year, at Christmas - and if you weren't home that night, you didn't get to watch Charlie Brown or Rudolph or whatever that year.
They were just gobsmacked by this concept.
I do agree with your grandmother to some extent; the invention of the videocassette was the beginning of the end of the shared culture. While I spent most of my teenage and young adult years (80's and 90s) loudly proclaiming how totally lame most mainstream pop culture was, there is something to be said for the shared experience.