Sometimes technology gets associated with particular time periods, like the way Victrola phonographs adorned parlors a century ago and how families used to gather around wood-framed console radios.

More recently in the 1980s, the VCR was the best thing for home entertainment since the invention of popcorn. The VCR revolutionized the way people enjoyed their televisions.

It meant that you never had to miss a favorite program. You could even watch one program and tape another in the event that two favorites were in competition. You could go to a video store and choose movies from a selection that numbered well into the hundreds.

Just as importantly you could pause a program for any reason; to answer the phone, fix a snack, or to watch a particularly interesting segment more than once.

It was great that VCRs corresponded to a newfound prevalence of microwave ovens in the home. It was no longer a challenge to fix hot snacks for a TV night or even to enjoy a home version of dinner theater.

People thought the VCR would be around forever. It seemed to have the same staying power as cassette tapes, which outperformed eight-tracks in the early 1970s.

Little did we know that a generation later both the VCR and cassettes would mostly be superceded by newer technology.

Like many people, I still have some favorite videotapes that I’ve been meaning to get converted to DVDs. I should do it soon since tapes deteriorate in quality as the years go by.

It’s a shame to see videotapes sold for practically nothing at garage sales and thrift stores. Unfortunately some perfectly good ones have ended up going into landfills. They’re adding to the cost of waste disposal.

I question the conventional wisdom regarding the demise of the VCR. The electronics industry wants us to believe it was simply a case of outdated technology.

It’s true that videotapes were clunky. It’s correct to note that they sometimes didn’t stand up to normal wear and tear as well as DVDs. The same comparison is true as far as cassettes and CDs.

Still, however, tapes remain a perfectly viable technology. Why not keep making them for the segment of the market that would still want them, that would continue to use the electronics of a previous generation?

I think it all comes down to industry’s approach when it comes to the Almighty Dollar. There seems to be a cold, calculated corporate effort to shift media products from ownership-based sales to leasing.

If you buy a DVD, a CD, a book, or an edition of a newspaper you can own it forever. It can even be handed down to future generations as a family keepsake. With copying, the standard was always that you could make one copy of print, audio or video for your own personal use.

Some of the giant 21st century corporate powers-that-be don’t want those things to happen. Instead they want people to fork over money repeatedly for the chance to use their products only for a short duration.

They’ve even tried to make it more expensive for public libraries to loan out copies at no charge to patrons. They want every last dollar they can make.

I’m hopeful that consumer preferences will outlast the industrial greed. The situation with vinyl records is one of the indications of how it’s possible.

Vinyl has been making a comeback. I noticed, for example, that my 1970s Hotel California album by the Eagles could retail for as much as $25 in a music shop. Suddenly albums are desirable again. People have started to want turntables.

There are undoubtedly some who’ve hoarded videotapes with the idea that they might once again be popular. The number of usable VCRs has been negatively impacted by the corporate driven switch to totally digital TV satellite signals, but there’s always the possibility of making old ones practical again or making newer versions.

In the end it will be driven by either federal regulation or by consumer demand, possibly by a combination of both.

Who knows if we’ll rediscover older technology, or if it will just become something for museums and antique collectors?

It might turn out that we’ll decide to make old-style entertainment popular again. Anything is possible.

— Jim Muchlinski is a longtime reporter and contributor to the Marshall Independent