Remediation, Chapters 2 and 3

I found the section on "Remediation as Reform" interesting because of the definition provided. Bolter adn Grusin say they use the word remediation as "a word to express the way in which one medium is seen by our culture as reforming or improving upon another" (59). What struck me was the word "improving". For some people, remediation may not be improving something at all. For instance, the transition from VHS to DVD. When this media first was introduced, DVD players were expensive and if you were/are not careful, you can ruin a DVD, simply by not putting it away properly. I know a VHS can be damaged, but this is how some people may have thought when DVDs were introduced. These days most homes have DVD players, but waht do people do with all of their VHSs? VCRs have become pretty much obsolete, so if you have one and it breaks or malfunctions, your options are limited. Also, Blockbuster no longer rents VHSs. What if you do not have a DVD player and you want to rent a movie? Your best bet would be to go out and buy it at Walmart, which is one of the only places that still sells them. I personally have both a VCR and a DVD player, but I have had to replace two DVD players and have had my VCR since I was in middle school. So although remediation can be a good thing, sometimes, old technology was not so bad.