degrees of "personality" in digital media

Back in the day, before all this digital technology changed film distribution, you'd have to go to the theater to see a film, or you'd have to own your own projection equipment and buy films to screen them privately.

Then of course they came out with VHS tapes, and later DVDs. What interested me was that after 376, I kind of equated these two technologies as both digital, both operating in similar ways. But I had a conversation with my girlfriend which changed the way I looked at it.

She said that she missed VHS. I asked why because I'd never thought about it-- I love DVDs and I think the technology has been a huge leap forward in a lot of ways for private viewing. But she said that she thought that VHS tapes had a personal touch that DVDs lacked. She mentioned that you could open a VHS tape or look in your VCR and you had a more personalized version of whatever you were watching. She said it was a more personal experience because it was like you had a "film" copy of the film you were watching, even if it was digitized on tape.

I considered this and kind of felt she was right. I do miss the days when I couldn't opt out of the advertisements at the beginning of a VHS tape, and I had to rewind it when I was done. It made me feel more involved with the technology. With a DVD, although I can pause and manipulate the film way easier and just watch the parts I want to watch, she had a point that it feels less personal.

Of course, all of this is kind of an illusion-- both of these are mass produced, digitized versions of what used to be an analog media form. But does anyone else feel the same way? I know the main complaint against VHS tapes vs. DVDs is that the visual quality is lower, but was anyone willing to forgive this flaw in light of the different experience VHS provided?

Another expression of this is with Vinyl vs. CDs (and going further, CDs vs. MP3 files). I'm not sure how many college students are really into vinyl anyway, but is the digital revolution depersonalizing the media experience? Or was it never really that personal to begin with? Or am I just splitting hairs here and all these digitized forms have relatively equivalent levels of "aura" or personal engagement? Thoughts?

Ryan Aliapoulios