Nostalgia.

The impending switch to digital cable has come and gone. Leaving us without fuzzy channels, wavy lines and static cracks, whistles and pops that characterize analog television. Maybe these flaws were annoying but there is a certain romantic nostalgia to the quirks of that technology. This nostalgia for lost technologies, what/why is it?

Nobody cares about VHS anymore, and you'd be lucky to find someone still making mixtapes. In all it took barely three years for this seemingly beloved technology to fade into history, implying that the emotional hold of the VHS was never really that strong.

However, sites like The Impossible Project are proving that certain technologies can transcend this obsolescence through being perpetually desirable. When Polaroid discontinued their instant analog film, a desire to preserve the technology became ever-present. In their New York Times article, The Impossible project PR states "We think it is one of the greatest inventions in the history of photography, because we are tired of tons of boring digital pics that surround us as everyday, but we love analog things, things you can touch, smell, see, hold in your hands, and things that surprise you. Like Polaroid does."

We have talked recently in class about the return of all things retro. Music, fashion and lifestyles of the past are constantly making returns based on that sole nostalgic value. In my next blog, I plan on talking about the remix generation and how nostalgia has a huge effect on this as well.

Til next time...