My first memory of digital technology is the DVD recording of my sister’s 10th birthday party. I was three years old when she turned 10 so most of my memories of that day are from that DVD. The video starts outside our old pre-school, where the party was hosted, and shows the setting up my mum and dad did before the party started. It then shows all the guests that were at the party and then it shows my sister. She had a big badge on saying ‘Happy Birthday!’ and a white dress. The soundtrack in the background was all of my sister’s favourite songs at the time, this includes ‘All Rise’ by Blue, ‘One Love’ by Blue and ‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours (Cover)’ by Blue (my sister was and still is a big Blue fan.) I probably have an earlier memory, but this one stands out to me because it was the first example I had of an event where the memories could be captured and relived later.
This DVD was the first documented party of many, it inspired so many more recordings, including my 5th birthday party recording. As my sister is older than me, she is basically my role model for many things so 2 years after her party I wanted my own. Since I had the DVD, I could take inspiration from different sections of the party and recreate them for mine. This became my blueprint, a sample I could ‘copy.’ I began studying the video so I could replicate it perfectly to ensure my party was as good as hers, well minus the part where I started crying. However, in my defence I was only 3 at the time so I was probably just overstimulated, but thinking back upon it now I think I started crying because my sister said she didn’t want to sit next to me which is life ruining words to a 3-year-old. My obsession with this DVD grew more and more each time I watched it, it got so bad my sister had to hide it from me. I don’t remember that being necessary, but my sister said she’d come back from school, and I would be watching the DVD, and she was tired of seeing her 10-year-old face on a big TV screen every day.
As to why I was so fascinated by this DVD I don’t think I’ll ever be able to truly answer that. It was so long ago, and I was so young, but if I had to guess now, I would likely attribute it to the fact that something that I experienced was available for me to watch whenever I wanted. The very idea of recording an event you went to and being able to watch it again felt like travelling back in time and actually being able to do it blew my mind at that age. It felt like my memories had been stored in this small disc and any time I forgot a part of the day it was there recorded for me. This is probably where my obsession with digital media began, and it makes me wonder if the next generation could ever experience this kind of shock from any of the digital forms of media created today.
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