2 blogs within the same week … what a time to be alive!!
Although, if it makes you feel any better, this blog post is a follow on from the one I posted previous (you can read it here), so while it is a new post, it’s a part post … last post + an “and here’s another thing …” so let’s get into it.
As with the previous post about how people still read multiple newspapers, this one is about other “retro” media. I currently work in a supermarket, one of the larger companies in the UK and our store is one of the company’s larger formats, so we have a fairly large non-food section. Whilst we were doing some work, we came across some items we sell with the word “retro” on them.
Being over 30, I remember the times when they were the new things in … revolutionary even, when it came to listen to music. We stock 3 generations of music players (4 if you include vinyl turntables, but here I’m including personal forms of listening to music), a personal cassette player, a personal CD player and a basic MP3 player. We even sell blank cassettes and blank CD’s.
So out of curiosity, I decided to check the last time these items were sold. I had a friendly ‘bet’ with my co-worker that the MP3 player would have sold recently, followed by the CD player (we still sell CD’s) and then the cassette player. The results, somewhat, shocked me. I figure you will know what the results were, but I’m going to write them anyways.
So, the MP3 player, the most recent form of music, was last sold August 2019. This is a little shocking but considering that most mobile phones have the ability to store and play MP3’s these days, and not to mention that a large quantity of music this day and age is streamed online, it’s kind of not as shocking as you think.
The cassette player and CD player were both sold in the same week, in February (this month) this year!! And the blank cassettes were also sold on the same day. I first assumed that this was someone playing shenanigans on me, or my co-worker invents time travel just to show me up. Think about it though, its 2020 and people STILL buy physical tape to listen to music. I mean, I realise that past music styles are making a comeback and retro is IN ... but vinyl is different to cassettes. Vinyl I kind of get, but cassettes not so much.
This then got me thinking that maybe its ME who is thinking wrong. With me being super interested in technology, space, sci-fi and futuristic stories, I jump 2 footed, head into new technologies. I LOVE new tech and will read into and try and get the newest technologies I can. I was the first in my family to get a smartphone, tablet, and smart watch (all apple btw … HYPE). I make sure to jump headfirst into 3D TV technology (that was a waste), I got the PSVR headset (used it a handful of times) and LOVE that I have a smart assistant that can control my lights (the next goal is to get more smart home tech … I’m talking doorbell, heating, door locks ... EVERYTHING).
I love how I can access magazines and news articles online and stream movies and music and tv shows without the need for physical storage. I even bought a kindle (although it took me a while to convert to it, but I LOVE it!! And will love it more when I go away on holiday with multiple books and just the one device. I look forward to what technology will bring in the coming years (and one day hope to be able to get a good electric car) but I base my observations on myself. So obviously, some people will not want to immerse themselves within technology and other people will love that retro feeling and memories of cassettes and it will be technologically advanced enough for them.
So maybe I should be more open in that others will not want fairly recent technologies and features. Although I’m still going be striving for the sci-fi future of my dreams.
So, technology companies
…
HURRY UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!!
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