Picture it. It’s a typical Wednesday night and the clock blinks an alarmingly red 7:53pm at you. You have everything set up; you checked the TV guide and verified the correct time and station – factoring time zones into the equation. You even used two brand new tapes, fresh from the shrink wrap, to make sure that you had plenty of space. If you have timed everything perfectly, you will hit the record button on the TV taping Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the family room and then run downstairs to your room in the basement and hit record button just as Charmed is about to begin.

Can you remember a time before the miracle that is DVR or Tivo? In a time before websites provided free streaming videos of your favorite TV shows, I remember having a library of VHS tapes – everything from TV movies of the week to the X-Files. Sometimes when I would run out of tapes and was unable to get more, I would have to make a difficult decision and sacrifice a tape to get taped over.

I remember giving family members explicit directions on taping my show, asking them if they were going to pause during commercials or periodically check in on it to make sure it was still recording. Or tapes having vague labels or labels that ripped off forcing you to put the tape in the VCR just to find out what was on it.  I also remember the devastation of miscalculating how much space you had left on a VHS tape and it cutting out during the final minutes of the epic season finale of your favorite TV show. Or even more tragic, watching your VHS tape slowly decrease in its quality – due to over-watching – to a point where you can no longer watch it.  

It’s scary to imagine that there is a generation of youth growing up lacking this pivotal character building experience.  The increase in channels and potential television shows to occupy one’s time with has come with an increase of venues to watch said programming. Though I don’t relish the days of the VCR nor have any desire to go back to them, there was something exhilarating of successfully taping multiple shows. There was a certain joy in having the ability to fast forward through commercials – no matter how slow the fast forward function was. However, I do not miss trying to find places in my room to store my VHS tapes. ;)