My son has his VHS tapes from his childhood as a matter of nostalgia, so that does ring true within his generation; VHS and old gaming platforms. I asked because finding a new VHS machine is impossible last I looked and he'd love to find one even though he has one that is getting a little long in the tooth.
Much like vinyl and the audiophile crowd, I have to wonder if there is a developed-enough nostalgia market for someone to bring out new made machines yet. I suspect that may become a thing, new machines to play collected tapes while displaying examples of old machines.
One would think collecting tech would be the nostalgia of the Millennial and the GenZed much as toy trains, model kits, even old cars is the nostalgia of our generation.
I must say, though, I very much enjoyed the ride myself. It all arguably came off the rails with the social media and iPhone, a seminal event no-one anticipated, but media replication; music, film, reference, encyclopaediac, the advances through our lifetime have been something to be a part of.
Just think of the brief flashes of things like the home reel-to-reel, the boom-box, the digital snap-shot idiot camera, the CD, 8-track, Blockbuster, the little hut that did next-day film processing, cassettes, those little transistor radios, modems that you clamped the phone handset into, and yes, Beta-vs-VHS.
Somehow, in our brief lifetimes, we went from perhaps a black-and-white telly and flipping through the singles at the record shop to this. Talk about technical progress far outstripping social progress!
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