Blog #9- Diffusion Of Innovations- The VCR

                                                    Diffusion Of Innovations- The VCR

The VCR was invented by Charles Paulson Ginsburg in 1956. Charles Paulson Ginsburg was known as the "father of the video cassette recorder". He was born in 1920 in San Francisco.

  The VCR Idea-

The idea behind the VCR was a way for people to. record, store, and playback television programs on television. The earliest devices were massive and they cost thousands of dollars to have they were the size of a piano, by the Ampex Company. VCR is rectangular in shape and silver, black, or gray in color. The videotapes used in VCRs are much smaller, but also rectangular and usually black. Outside of major television studios and broadcast centers, they were unheard of. People caught on to this new invention due to wanting to watch whatever they wanted whenever they wanted they wanted a way to rewatch something they'd already seen. People became early adopters because they heard of how big this new invention was everyone was talking about a VCR and how beneficial it was then going out and spending money on a movie people thought this would save them money and satisfy them by watching what they wanted from home. Other people became late adopters because the VCR was the cheapest thing ever invented in fact the VCR was an expensive thing to own once it first came out now in today's time it's about 40 dollars to own one because no one really needs one anymore in today society. The idea of the VCR was in fact a good idea the vision was there but only lasted a decade and people just sort of forgot about it since DVD came out. 

Downsides and Negative Consequences

The downside to the VCR was that it was an expensive thing to own back in the day and if your home had one you were considered rich. Lots of people wanted one but just couldn't afford it. Another downside to the VCR was copyright this played a big part in the downside of VCR. People were sharing and recording certain videos and sharing them with others then a law was then passed that it is illegal to record or share videos from a tape without permission from the producer of the film. Then there were main downsides like poor quality of video and picture, trouble with the tape getting messed up, having to rewind taking forever to use, and overall it was just a bulky piece of technology to have and wasn't the cutest looking thing invented but it did the job at the time of it being an actual thing people used. But it did have many positives not trying to diss
the VCR but people just got bored with it not quickly but once something new came along people were quick to buy the new invention rather than keeping their VCR at home.

Would the Positive Outweigh to Negative? 

Yes the VCR had a positive impact on communication technology and the way we communicate being able to watch things from home without having to go anywhere and rewatch your favorite shows and the fact you could record and keep tapes of your favorite movies, shows, and important events you may want to keep in the future. But if im being honest that's about all the VCR did and people realized it wasn't that popular after a while and wasn't that crazy of an invention and was way overpriced to be that poor of a product for people to constantly used. So people decided to ditch the VCR which is when the positive turned into a negative when people were overusing it and found something way cooler and less expensive to use which was the DVD which had way better quality than the VCR and wasn't as bulky and ugly looking as the VCR. The death of the VCR will never be forgotten but will honestly never be used again unless your grandparents saved you one to use.