R.I.P., VCR

We come here today to bury the VCR and to announce the breaking news that VCRs are still being manufactured.

But only for another 10 days.

Funai Electric, a Japanese consumer electronics company and the last one still making VCR (videocassette recorders, for you kids), is closing production at the end of the month, according to ARS Technica.

It began making the machines in 1983 and sold 15 million units a year at one point.

The machine changed our culture and, in particular, our demands. We no longer adjust our lives to accommodate media. We expect media to come to us anytime we demand it.

Other than the smartphone, what other inventions of the ’70s and ’80s changed our culture?