This week we delved further into the definition of “old media” and what it truly means by reading Simone Natale’s “There Are No Old Media.” It included great discussion about the relevancy in which we view different pieces of technology in modern society and how the dates of their release aren’t as important to their classification as old or new; comparatively to a technologies popularity or social relevance. Natale (2016) says “It is only apparently a paradox: By acknowledging that there is not such a thing as old media, we may finally understand the real extent to which old media are present in our social world and experience.”
I found this quite inspiring and relevant while in class as we explored all the modes of media we’ve used across our lifetimes and which ones have evolved with us.
While they could be considered old, such as a VHS player, it is still a relevant piece of technology in my life, and used —for entertainment or otherwise — to better my life than to be without it. It seems as though as long as the ‘old’ technology stays relevant to you, personally, and elicits feeling of comfort or otherwise, then it is as modern as when it was first released to markets. In an article written on the resurgence of vinyl in the twenty-first century, Winters (2016) states that “A vinyl [record] may also represent the aural equivalent of comfort food, and attempt to make sense of a digital world no longer within our grasp.” This provided emotional support seems apparent in the relationship between the –chronologically– older technologies that prevail and their ability to stay ‘new.’
References
- Natale S (2016), There Are No Old Media, Journal of Communication Website, Volume 66, Issue 4 Pages 585–603. Acessed 10 March 2023 https://doi-org.ezproxy.lib.rmit.edu.au/10.1111/jcom.12235
- Winters P (2016) Vinyl Records and Analog Culture in the Digital Age: Pressing Matters, pp 47, Lexington Books, United States.