Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.
Over the span of a single decade, VHS technology changed the relationship between privacy and entertainment, pried open the closed societies behind the Iron Curtain, and then sank back into oblivion.
Its meteoric rise and fall encapsulated the dynamics of the '80s and foreshadowed the seismic cultural shifts to come after the Cold War.
In the West, its advent deepened the trends of the age: individualism, consumerism, the fragmentation of society, and the consolidation of corporate power in the entertainment industry and its victory over the regulatory powers of the state. In the East, it encouraged new forms of socialization and economic
exchanges, while announcing the gradual crumbling of government control over the imagination of the people.
By the mid-1990s, the VHS format was displaced by the DVD. The DVD would eventually give way to streaming. Yet the cultural legacy of the videotape continues to inform our relationship to technology, privacy, and to entertainment.
Over the span of a single decade, VHS technology changed the relationship between privacy and entertainment, pried open the closed societies behind the Iron Curtain, and then sank back into oblivion.
Its meteoric rise and fall encapsulated the dynamics of the '80s and foreshadowed the seismic cultural shifts to come after the Cold War.
In the West, its advent deepened the trends of the age: individualism, consumerism, the fragmentation of society, and the consolidation of corporate power in the entertainment industry and its victory over the regulatory powers of the state. In the East, it encouraged new forms of socialization and economic
exchanges, while announcing the gradual crumbling of government control over the imagination of the people.
By the mid-1990s, the VHS format was displaced by the DVD. The DVD would eventually give way to streaming. Yet the cultural legacy of the videotape continues to inform our relationship to technology, privacy, and to entertainment.
Betala smidigt med kort, Klarna, Apple Pay eller Google Pay. Är du inte nöjd har du alltid 14 dagars ångerrätt. Läs mer i våra villkor. Har du några frågor, mejla oss på hello@memmo.org.
Memmo gör det enklare att plugga – var du än är i världen. Hos oss samlar du kursböcker och smarta studieverktyg på ett och samma ställe: sammanfattningar, quiz, poddar och flashcards. Och så Ted, din studiekompis som svarar på allt du undrar. Över 50 000 studenter pluggar redan här – byggt för att du ska lära dig snabbare och stressa mindre.