I remember back when I was younger I would use VHS tapes to watch movies and tv shows. I remember always watching The Teletubbies and Barnie. I specifically remember when my brother would watch his Thomas the Train and The Wiggles, VHS tapes. I believe my family still has all the VHS tapes but we don’t ever use them anymore because they are so obsolete now a days. I even think that DVD’s will eventually become obsolete because of all the things, like Hulu, Netflix, Youtube and many other things that have movies and shows to watch. I have Netflix and that is all I ever watch and I rarely even watch regular tv anymore.

Another thing that has become obsolete is the use of CD’s. I remember having a stereo when I was younger and I would always play the Hannah Montana CD, or the High School Musical CD. Even now, in the newer model of cars they don’t even have a place for you to play a CD. They all have bluetooth or a place for an auxiliary cord to use your phone to play music. There are so many apps like, Spotify,  and iTunes where you can create your own playlist of your favorite music and you don’t even have to buy the CD’s and then burn all your favorite songs on one CD. I remember my dad used to do that and my mom did it one time, just so that they had all their favorite songs on one CD.

When I was younger I had a Nintendo DS and PSP. I played those devices all the time. I don’t remember the last time I’ve seen someone playing on one of those devices. Now everything is played on XBOX, or the PS4. My family has a Wii but I couldn’t tell you the last time we used that because we now have a PS4. It’s crazy how all the devices I used to use, I don’t ever use them anymore and they are just sitting around my house taking up space.

It’s amazing how over time the media I used has changed from using VHS to Netflix, from CD’s to iTunes, from Nintendo DS to PS4. Media is always changing and it will continue to change.

Many forms of legacy media are very prevalent in my every day life, even though many people consider these forms of media to be obsolete. No, I do not watch VHS tapes or listen to CD’s anymore, but I do have many memories of these forms of media from when I was younger. These forms of legacy media are associated with my childhood and make me feel very nostalgic. I still remember burning CD’s to listen to in the car, or burning CD’s to give to my friends in elementary school. These memories are a lot more meaningful to me than the first day I downloaded Spotfiy, which I don’t even remember. Another legacy media is the newspaper, which my dad gets delivered to our house every day. There is something about reading an article in a newspaper that reading an article on the internet just can’t compare to. Newer media like the internet is supposed to make other forms of media obsolete, but instead in my life it has made forms of legacy media even more appreciated and used. At first, trying out new media can be exciting, for example I still remember when my Amazon Kindle came in the mail many years ago, but after a while new media can become obsolete. I quickly ditched my Kindle for regular paper books, and to this day I still do not know where my Kindle is. New media can be a hassle, but old media is basic, reliable, and oddly comforting to use in a world that so quickly changes and updates.

In my house, music is a prevalent thing. We are constantly playing music in the background at any event because it can help set a mood. Nowadays, it is most common to hear of people using their phones to access their music libraries through Spotify, pandora, or apple music. It is crazy to think of how obsolete things like CD’s and cassette players have become. This is especially fascinating to my family, because my grandfather was the owner of a record label, Intersound. He would produce countless albums that were placed on CD’s and sold around the US. He sold this company in the late 90’s right as the music industry began to turn into a digital market.
With the generation today, CD’s have become residual media that are rarely seen due to the immense access people have to any and every song possible through their phones. No one feels the need to spend money on a complete album when they can simply buy a single song a download it on Itunes. Even simpler is the notion of Spotify. You simply pay ten dollars a month to almost unlimited access to all music. Although we have access to such vast amounts of music there’s no feeling quite like being able to pop in a CD to your car and skip around the album of your favorite artist with the windows down. These are the moments I have the most memories of not the moments I plug in my phone to the aux. In reality the digitalization of music is the same situation as the digitalization of books. It is all personal preference, but how accessible something is to someone definitely impacts how often it is used.

One piece of residual media that my family has completely abandoned is cable TV. Recently a few months ago my dad switched from using DirecTV to completely relying on antenna TV. Though it seems like we were reverting back to a an almost obsolete media, what made us switch was the emergent media of Netflix and other online streaming sources.

Because I have Netlflix, Amazon Prime, Youtube, and other online streaming sources I have an infinite library of movies and TV shows at my finger tips, available to me whenever I need them. It allows me the ability to watch shows on my own schedule instead of keeping up with shows weekly, anxiously waiting for the new episode to come out. Instead I can just wait for a season to come out on Netflix or possibly find the new episode somewhere else online. It also saves me money because I can also just wait for movies to come out online too.

With DirecTV there were over 300 channels we could watch, but barely watched half of them. I only ever watched cable TV for all the cooking shows I never actually learned from to kill time after school or kept it on as background noise for other activities I would be doing around the house. My parents only ever watched local news channels or sports games, and the antenna is still able to provide that same entertainment, just limiting what games my dad can watch.

It is ironic how an emergent media allowed for a residual media to come back; however, because my parents are more old school and do not comply to newer technologies, I am the only one that uses the internet as my new source of TV entertainment.

Over my eighteen year lifetime, I’ve seen my share of media. As a four year old, I would record movies off the TV using a VHS. I can remember having several VHS tapes of all my favorite Disney movies. I owned cassette tapes of sing-alongs. I remember using a floppy disk for a project in the second grade. My parents upgraded the TV to include a DVD player and we started buying DVDs. I was given a CD player to listen to my sing-alongs (and later and MP3 player). I had a flash drive by the time I was in the fifth grade.

Truly it is amazing to know that I am a part of the generation that lived through the shift in media. We were the ones who saw the changes in technology. We weren’t immediately born into it. We were introduced to different aspects of it and were able to appreciate them both.

Apple’s release of the iPhone 7 and wireless earbuds made me realize that corded headphones will soon become obsolete media. I personally appreciate corded headphones and their ability to not be lost or easily broken; however, Apple sees the corded headphone as a hindrance and therefore must be replaced by wireless ones. Of course, Beats made wireless headphones popular as well, but with the iPhone’s exclusion of a headphone jack, the wireless headphone craze is bound to pick up speed. Truly, corded headphones will soon become old media.

It is interesting to look at the shifts between new and old media and how they’ve been such an important part in this generation. We were the kids who went from watching “Hercules” on VHS to watching “Mean Girls” on DVD to watching “Twilight” on Netflix. Times are changing, and luckily we are that bridge to keep both the old media and new media alive.

When I was younger, I used to be obsessed with reading. Every month my mom would have to drive me to the closest Barnes and Noble so that I could buy a few new books. When I finished reading those books, I would set them on my bookshelf and then have to go back to the store for more. I think my mom eventually got tired of driving me to the bookstore so often, so she instead went and bought me a Kindle so that I could just download the books I wanted on this digital device. This seemed so easy and convenient, and I could now read more books without having to worry about when I would be able to go to the bookstore next. But the reading experience on a Kindle was completely different than reading from the actual book. There is something about holding a paper book that makes it so much more special than reading it online. While holding the actual book, I felt more connected to the story that the author had written about. After some time, my love for reading began to dwindle, which I think is due to not only the fact that I was getting older and busier, but also that I didn’t enjoy reading as much on the digital device. Even though I do not read as much today, I still hate having to read anything online. If a teacher assigns a reading of an online article (like the reading for this week), I have to print it out and read it from the printed copy, which isn’t as convenient. This is one legacy media that I feel I will not be able to let go of. It seems like there are less actual bookstores today because less people are using actual books, and if they are, they just order them online. It is sad to see that something that was such a big part of my childhood is changing so much.

We might think of older media in a number of ways: as residual media (as opposed to media that are dominant or emergent in a particular place and time), as legacy media (we’ve inherited them from previous generations), or as obsolete media (ouch!).

Write a blog posting that focuses on your own experiences with residual, legacy, or obsolete media—or with one old medium in particular. Did you ever have to struggle with an older medium, perhaps because your assumptions had been shaped by newer media) ? Did you grow up with any media that hardly exist anymore? Did you come late to a medium that was already on its way out? Do you carry a torch for a legacy medium?

For class on 9/12, read “The End of Legacy Media” (WWW) (…but make sure you check out the date!)

Handwritten letters are becoming a thing of the past, and after this assignment, it makes me a little sad. I was originally worried when I heard that I was going to have to hand write a letter because I had no idea who I would write to nor what the letter was going to be about. I decided to write to my younger brothers because they are who I miss the most from home.

Nowadays, a reason it is harder to converse with people via mailed letters is because it takes a while for them to receive them. This could be due to long distances, wrong addresses, or a mailing mix up and that makes it less dependable than a text message or phone call. Technology comes with its own set of problems, such as dropped calls, no service, and wrong numbers. Even with these technology cons, its easier to communicate because it is much faster. By calling/texting someone you are able to reach them within seconds and when the matter is urgent or time sensitive, that is crucial.

With all of that being said, a letter is something special because it lasts forever. I still have memorable birthday cards or letters from loved ones because they meant something to me so I kept them.  I was able to think about what I really wanted to say so that it would mean something to my brothers. Not having spell check was a struggle at times, but knowing that I was writing my brothers a thoughtful letter made the ideas flow. I think this exercise is important for any millennial so that they can be reminded of how important it is to keep handwritten letters around.

To begin, I’d like to apologize for this rather tardy blog post. However, my tardiness is going to further my point.

When Dr. Menke wanted us to write a letter, I was originally excited. I never get to send letters because everyone is typically used to text messages. Most of the people I talk to are just a click away so I tend not to send letters. However, given the excuse to send one, I was ready to jump at the opportunity.

However, I soon became consumed with too much work and stress from other sources that I actually forgot about the letter. When I realized I had to write a letter in a couple of hours before class, I freaked out. How in the heck could I have forgotten.

And that’s the point: In this generation, we’re so consumed with everything else that we forget to do the things that actually take time and are important. Even if we are originally excited about them, most of them soon take the backseat to other outrageous events that force themselves into precedence. It’s important to remember that the things in life that take more time and pay homage to those ways before us are still important. If they got our ancestors through life, they obviously aren’t too bad. Of course, we don’t have to go back to carrier pigeons or the Pony Express, but it is nice to know that we still have letter writing as an effective method of communication…even if it slips our mind until an hour before class.

There are several different media platforms in which I can send a friend a message. I could go through Facebook, Twitter, call them over the phone, or even by sending a simple text message. However, writing a letter is still a decently common form of contact between individuals. Now a days, people get excited over a letter in the mail. When I open the mailbox and see an envelope with my name on it, I am excited to see what the envelope has in store for me. I feel as if this creates a feeling that a text message just doesn’t create. I also believe that writing a letter is more personal. It shows that you took the time to gather the materials and put aside a few minutes to write out something meaningful. I wrote my letter to one of my closest friends who I haven’t seen since I went off to college. We will be seeing each other this weekend as we fly to Philadelphia together to see Rihanna and Coldplay perform, so I hope she will receive this letter before we head out. While I haven’t written a letter in some time, it didn’t feel the least abnormal to me. I assume this is because it’s similar to sending a very long, personal text message – which I frequently do send. This probe showed me that writing a letter may be outdated, but it has remained an excellent way to let someone know that you’re thinking about them.