Media, Consumption and Everyday Life: A Case Study

The Domestification of Technologies

Mrs A is a 46 year old single mother. She works part-time at a local laundry and owns a 2 bedroom house. In August 2000 she decided to purchase a Sony SLV-SE200 video cassette recorder in order to replace her old faulty one. Mrs A was advised against purchasing the shops (Currys) own brand VCRs due to unreliability, so for that reason she felt it was worth spending a little extra for better quality. It should be noted that her previous VCR, a Toshiba, had lasted 13 years and it was for this reason that she intended to stick to the same brand. However, due to her own lack of transport and the shops not having a wide range to chose from, she felt the Sony was the next best thing.

Mrs A's philosophy of value for money before other more superfluous attributes have led, as she admits, to a discordance of styles. However, the silver VCR now nestles inside a pine tv/video unit, beneath her black 14 inch television, so it does not cause a noticable clash of styles.

Mrs A's decision to buy what she claims to be "the simplest model they had" relates to her theory that the less "bells and whistles" it has, the less there is to go wrong. This also gives her more confidence to use the VCR. Mrs A discovered certain features which further eased her use of the VCR, such as auto-tuning and a record-stop timer.

Such are the power relations between Mrs A and her 15-year-old son, Mrs A only feels she can really exert any power or control over the VCR when she is home on her own, recording films and pieces of her favourite soap opera to watch "when there is nothing else to do". She feels that she has to give in to her son when he wants to use the VCR in order to keep the peace. Mrs A's use of the VCR is more ordered and habitual, in contrast to the more random use by her son. Mrs A will "stand [her] ground" if his intents conflict with her viewing or recording patterns, only to feel guilt and a loss of pleasure in watching the intended programme later.

The only negative feelings she has towards the VCR are those relating to the domination of its use by others, and that it once chewed up a tape containing one of her favourite programmes, she claims this is "sods law". However, she feels that these negative feelings are outweighed by the flexibility it allows her and the convenience of being able to record one channel, whilst watching another, should favoured programmes coincide. To conclude, she views the VCR as a means to freedom and control over when she can watch her favourite programmes and films, but also as something she can really only enjoy on her own.