Media

Note on terminology

Any occurrence of term “medium” in this blog post refers solely to “any physical material (as tape, disk, paper, etc.) used for recording or reproducing data, images, or sound” (Medium, n. & Adj. Meanings, Etymology and More | Oxford English Dictionary, n.d.). Alternatively, a medium in this blog post is any “material having defined properties, including a physical variable that can be used to represent data. […] Examples of data media are magnetic disks, optical disks, and magnetic tape, and also paper used for printer output” (Butterfield et al., 2016).

This comes in contrast with the popular use of the word, where “medium” refers to the data that is stored in (hardware) media, data that is later transformed into information that humans may perceive through the senses, such as image, sound, text, and the like. Note also that in some contexts term “medium” may refer to “a channel of mass communication, as newspapers, radio, television[, social media], etc.” (Medium, n. & Adj. Meanings, Etymology and More | Oxford English Dictionary, n.d.).

Prehistory

The first medium ever used is the “cave wall”. Nevertheless, “prehistory” in this article refers to the era starting with the advent of recording media that I used during my childhood (apart from paper and its derivatives, such as books, notebooks, sketchbooks, …), and ending somewhere in the 90’s of the 20th century, when internet killed the video star. (Please do not lookup The Broad Band’s Internet Killed the Video Star, since it contains some material that may be rated as being inappropriate in an academic setting.)

During this period, media may be categorised under three main categories:

• tapes, which were used mainly to store analogue data, but not limited to analogue technology;
• disk technology, where only digital data may be stored, with exception to vinyls, which I have no experience with; and
• storage media that are electronic circuits.

Tapes

The Cassette

The first medium that I ever used was a cassette tape, where my favourite rock songs were recorded. I still remember hearing rock music home for the very first time (it was either AC/DC, or Scorpions) using some AKAI ASE-[I do not remember the model number] headphones. The headphones were too heavy for a child to carry on their head. The sound quality, however, was extremely appealing that I kept listening to that music all day long, and I am since then a huge fan of rock music. Back then, AKAI used some kind of material that even a child’s ultra sensitive ears were almost perfectly isolated from the surrounding environment. A feature that modern day Bluetooth devices do not offer. Even noise cancelling is nothing compared to what AKAI achieved back then.

After leaving France and moving to Syria, I grew up among a certain circle of people where every household owned a library of rock music, that is a bunch of cassette tapes stored in (mainly Adidas) shoeboxes. Music was a very social thing that I had to visit my friends to listen to some piece of music or copy some cassette tapes (illegally unfortunately). Otherwise, I had to buy some cassette tapes from some music shop in the market. In either case, a passionate discussion related to rock music must take place, where people used to exchange information about rock bands and their news verbally.

Due to the political situation in Syria, rock music is not particularly mainstream in the country. However, there are enough rock and metal fans to organize the most spectacular rock concerts ever. Rock and metal music were so banned that once you leave the concert hall chances are you get “kidnapped” by Syrian intelligence and sent to jail to spend a few days, or a few months, and maybe get tortured, as a consequence of enjoying the heaviest riffs in a live concert! Nevertheless, we never stopped listening to rock music and organising concerts. We were basically a huge bunch of highly blasphemous hooligans. (If you want to know more about blasphemy, please talk to me in private, since the subject is ultra irritating to people practicing any kind of faith!) We were about to break through the Citadel of Damascus once, where some Raï music concert took place (another highly political music genre), a castle that the French army failed to break through after invading the country in the first half of the 20th century. Furthermore, there were many shops that used to sell rock and metal music. These shops, which used to provide the only media for the hungry market to consume, used to get closed and sealed by Syrian intelligence frequently.

Cassettes were used for a variety of purposes. Cassettes were not exclusively the means by which rock music spread around the country. The cassette left a strong impression in my memory due to rock music, however. Cassettes served also the purpose of storage devices for the primitive computers that were available back then. I remember playing some mind disturbing arcade games that were stored on cassettes. I never liked arcade games back then, the only available genre at the time. Cassettes were also used to record family memories using some recorder, whether handheld, or rock-concert-Marshall-wall-sized recorders. There are plenty of recordings of mine, where I was just a child speaking some language that almost no one hard of, my mother tongue Adyghe.

VHS

Term “VHS” is mistakenly used to refer to a certain type of storage medium. VHS, however, “is a standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes” (“VHS,” 2024). The popular use of VHS, then, simply refers to particular types of cassette.

This medium was available at video stores, where customers may buy or rent movies and (TV) series. I guess that the practice of renting movies online originates from the practice of renting VHS tapes. Because, otherwise, at least in my opinion, renting online movies does not make any sense whatsoever!

The Film

Another medium that I used frequently in prehistory besides the cassette is the 35 mm film, and I might have spent a fortune trying to become a professional abstract photographer, until I eventually gave up. I still have a fully functional Olympus OM-2. Well, these SLRs never die! Until these days, film photography still costs a fortune.

A film is an extremely sensitive medium that must be handled with extreme caution. You may, for instance, not expose the film to any kind of light while (un)mounting the film, since almost any kind of light causes some chemical reaction to start, leaving a visual imprint on the exposed area.

Films were easily available, since these were the only means for recording still images back then. I used to visit so-called photography shops to buy my films and to process them once the film is completely consumed by my Olympus OM-2. Processing a film involves the use of some chemicals that are not particularly eco-friendly (or green, the modern-day synonym of eco-friendly). The process is an extremely delicate one that the whole film may be lost due to machine or human error, where the shop owner may simply say that the film is burned! Therefore, it is recommended not to use film cameras for mass production, now that digital cameras are widely available.

Disk Technology

Sloppy Disk, AKA Floppy Disk

A floppy disk was, and is still, the silliest kind of medium that I have ever come across. Nevertheless, the floppy disk was a vital and essential part of the digital scenery in prehistory. A floppy disk is an extremely sensitive medium that gets damaged for no specific reason at all, although the disk is encased in a protective case.

The most popular format was the 3½ inch floppy disk, with a capacity of 1.44 MB. I used to store images on floppy disk just to have them lost after a few days, or even a few hours, and I still have no idea why. Nevertheless, do not underestimate this medium, since an entire version of Windows used to be shipped on a bunch of floppy disks.

CD/DVD

Now, this is my favourite. A CD is, yet, another digital storage device, much more robust compared to floppy disks, and offers a much larger storage volume. CDs, however, are also sensitive. Note that a CD’s surface, as opposed to that of the floppy disk, is completely exposed, turning this medium into a (supposedly) more vulnerable one. Nevertheless, it is not possible to damage a CD by shaking the medium or blowing some air!

The CD was another great medium to spread rock music in Syria. There were countless of shops selling pirated copies all over Damascus. These shops used to get closed and sealed by Syrian intelligence as well, not due to copyright infringements, unfortunately, but because rock and metal were banned in Syria, unfortunately. These shops were extremely famous among rock and metal fans in the country, and you could find almost anything there. What is not directly available, the shop owner could have made available in a few hours, or a few days, thanks to Torrent technology and the like.

Besides music, this medium was also used to ship video games. Moreover, software and movies used to be sold on CD/DVDs. In fact, this technology completely replaced all kinds of tapes, except for the photographic film. Even the iconic portable audio player was completely replaced by the portable CD player due to the popularity of the medium.

Due to the importance of the medium at the time, I chose as my first laptop an Asus device that had the first built-in CD/DVD Read/Write drive, something that was considered to be impossible at the time, especially given the dimensions of my laptop, however successfully implemented by Asus. The laptop, of course, was not the cheapest at all.

Miscellaneous

Various other forms of media were exchanged during this era, to name a few:

• Flash memory, and its derivatives, such as MP3 players;
• ROM-based cartridges, such as Sega Mega Drive cartridges; and
• Hard Disk Drives (HDD).

Low Quality Era, AKA Cocoon Era, AKA Internet Era

The introduction of digital technology, generally spoken, including some media from prehistory, caused a lot of frustration to my highly sensitive ears. The sound quality was extremely poor during this era that I always found it extremely difficult to listen to music. Although, digital technology was meant to provide more reliable means for storing, exchanging, and transmitting information. It could have been the case, however, that I totally missed the lossless quality part. Nevertheless, most music was encoded in MP3 format.

During this era, the only medium that I use (assuming that the Internet is not a medium) is Solid State Drive (SDD), a (mostly) flash-based technology. SSD is the successor of HDD, and may be considered to belong to prehistory. During this era, even SSDs are not relevant anymore, since everything is stored in the cloud, and all the user have to do is subscribe to streaming services and download online content while lying wrapped in a blanket like a cocoon. This high availability of online content resulted, unfortunately, in lower levels of Vodka consumption, since, unfortunately, I do not have to socialise anymore to acquire new music.

Tips

For the very sensitive ears out there, a few tips are in place. If you have an audio streaming subscription on Spotify, Apple Music, and/or YouTube Music, please note that the streaming service is configured to play low quality audio by default. You may configure the software/app to stream and store lossless audio and enjoy much higher quality music. Please note also that Spotify somehow tampers with data, and as a result, the quality of Spotify’s lossless streaming service is nothing compared to that of YouTube and Apple. (It sounds as if the bass is somehow reduced.) I would recommend immediately switching to Apple or YouTube, if you are a Spotify subscriber. YouTube has the largest library. If you are a user of Apple technology, however, you may prefer to stick to the default and subscribe to Apple Music. As a final tip, always use wired headphones, since most implementations of Bluetooth technology do not support transmitting lossless audio. And remember, the cheaper the headphones the better. (Well, that is true for Sony at least! See Headphones Side-by-Side Comparison Tool, just compare audio performance. The high-end WF-1000 provides many features for certain. However, on average, WF-C500 audio performance score is higher.) Generally spoken, for a true lossless experience, never buy bluetooth headphones, always go wired.

Acknowledgement

The idea behind this blog post is inspired by an idea proposed by my friend Ayham. I have expanded upon the idea in some way that Ayham may not necessarily approve.

References

Butterfield, A. B., Ngondi, G. E. N. E., & Kerr, A. K. (2016). Data medium. In A. Butterfield, G. E. Ngondi, & A. Kerr (Eds.), A Dictionary of Computer Science. Oxford University Press. https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780199688975.001.0001/acref-9780199688975-e-1236

Headphones Side-by-Side Comparison Tool. (n.d.). RTINGS.Com. Retrieved October 5, 2024, from https://www.rtings.com/headphones/tools/compare/sony-wf-c500-truly-wireless-vs-sony-wf-1000xm5-truly-wireless/28723/38974

Medium, n. & adj. Meanings, etymology and more | Oxford English Dictionary. (n.d.). Retrieved October 5, 2024, from https://www.oed.com/dictionary/medium_n

VHS. (2024). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=VHS&oldid=1248009467