Zwanziger Blog #2

Blog Entry #2

Media has changed a lot over the years! While I always knew that in the back of my mind, it wasn’t until I sat down with my grandparents, Kiki and Papaw, and asked about how they used/received their media that I realized just how different life was before our newest technological advances. Over a couple of burgers and fries at Red Robin, I got to sit down and ask them what their life was like regarding the media when they were growing up. Kiki and Papaw were born in the 50s, so they got to see the media evolve throughout their lives. One of the first major things that both Kiki and Papaw were quick to point out how much more difficult it was to study and do research before the creation of the internet. Since there was no internet, if they needed to do research for school they would have to go to the library and use the encyclopedia and other books to try and find their information.

This made finding information a lot harder and was often very time consuming. Kiki joked and pointed out that now it is much easier, especially with the help of Alexa and Siri. Not only that, but for daily information they basically relied on the newspaper or television. Kiki said that she mainly relied on the newspaper because her family only had one tv, which she said was almost always broken. Another large difference that they discussed was how they would talk to one another. I think because we are always communicating that we often don’t think about what life was like before our cell phones. Kiki and Papaw explained that if they wanted to talk to each other then they would have to call each other on their one home phone. Papaw’s family only had one telephone in their house, so if he wanted a little privacy when talking to Kiki he would pull the phone through a window and would sit outside, regardless of if it was warm or cold. Not only that, but also communicating with people who were long distance was also a lot more difficult. Papaw explained that sometimes to talk to people you would have to send them notes in the mail. This would take a couple of weeks and was definitely not as fast as texting is today! Another big change that they both pointed out was radio. Kiki and Papaw said that radio was where they heard and learned a lot of their music. At this point the only other way to listen to music was by buying a record, which was expensive to do. Movies were also very similar to music. If they wanted to go to the movies they would either go to the drive in or a big screen theater, which was also expensive to do. Kiki said that at one-point people would get really dressed up to go to the movies because it was a nice outing.

Papaw said that “digital really changed everything”, when the media started becoming more digital we were able to start owning movies and music for much cheaper than before. Not only was it cheaper, but you could also have it on demand whenever you wanted. Since there were no streaming sites such as Spotify, you would really only purchase the music that you really enjoyed via albums and even later cds. Another way that our media has changed drastically over the years is how we tell one another about our experiences at different establishments/restaurants. Papaw boasts over 30,000 readers on a popular review website called Trip Advisor, in which people can share their experiences with one another. Papaw enjoys posting his reviews to his loyal readers and recommending restaurants to thousands of people, which he never was able to do before. He not only shares his reviews, but also reads others as a way to find good new places to try, especially if he is out of town for a business trip.

Kiki and Papaw both pointed out that how we share our media and pictures with one another has also drastically changed. Kiki explained that if you wanted to have pictures then you would take them on a camera that you would wind up, which you would then bring to a picture center to have them printed. This cost money and you would even have to pay for your pictures if they did not turn out well, which you were only able to tell after they were printed. If you wanted to show people your pictures then you would mainly keep them in a photobook or a scrapbook to show people, rather than posting them online for people to see. This process of taking pictures and having to wait to see them has changed a lot throughout the years, as we can now take pictures easily and immediately view them.

Overall, media has drastically changed over the past 50 years and has changed almost everything about how we interact with one another. Before social media, you only knew what people were doing if you talked to them and asked about their day. Not only that, but you could not talk to people who live far from you nearly as easily as you can today via texting and social media. Kiki and Papaw both are active on social media and enjoy keeping up with their friends they don’t see as often online.