What VHS Rewind Time Reveals About Screen Time

A few months ago, I bought a TV/VCR combo for $50 from an older gentleman on Facebook Marketplace. He told me it hadn't been turned on in more than 15 years.

Against all odds, it worked. Mostly. The built-in VCR occasionally gets stuck, and I have to use a small tool to manually eject tapes. But I make it work.

Since then, I've slowly built a VHS collection from thrift stores and antique malls, never spending more than $2-3 per tape.

At first, the television was mostly a fun nostalgia and novelty project. The DVD player launched in the U.S. when I was less than a year old, so admittedly, I only remember using VHS tapes at my grandma's house until she, too, transitioned to DVD.

But as a communication and technology scholar, I started noticing something interesting.

For several weeks, I watched a movie before going to sleep. During that time, I found myself putting my phone down one to two hours before falling asleep and, ultimately, sleeping better. The experience felt slower and more intentional, although I know there is a lot to be said about not having a television in your bedroom.

Then I moved, and the television ended up sitting in my garage collecting dust.

A few months later, my best friend and her 11-year-old daughter came to visit.

Knowing they were coming, I had intentionally collected several Mary-Kate & Ashley VHS tapes. We pulled the television out of storage, dusted it off, and settled in for a movie marathon.

That is when I found myself watching something happen in real time that perfectly illustrated a concept I often teach.

The Screen Time Question We Keep Asking

When people talk about technology and well-being, the conversation often centers on a single question:

Is screen time good or bad?

Parents worry about it, schools debate it, and news headlines warn about it.

But as a researcher, I have never found that question particularly useful.

Screen time is not one single thing. Watching a movie with people you love is different from doomscrolling alone. Video chatting with a grandparent is different from being pulled into autoplay for hours. Playing a creative game is different from using technology to compare, bully, or disconnect.

Research supports this more complicated picture. Orben and Przybylski (2019), for example, found that associations between digital technology use and adolescent well-being were small and difficult to interpret. More recent diary research adds another layer: different platforms may have different effects. Van der Wal and colleagues (2026) analyzed more than 44,000 daily diaries from 479 adolescents and found that social media use could affect well-being, self-esteem, and friendship closeness differently, with some platforms showing more negative associations than others.

That is why the better question is not simply how much time we spend with screens, but it is what we are doing with that time, how it fits into the rest of our lives, and what it may be replacing.

That is what the VHS reminded me of.

The Unexpected Value of Rewind Time

Before we could even start our movie marathon, we had to wait for the first tape to rewind.

For anyone who grew up with streaming services, that sentence probably sounds ridiculous.

After the first movie, I got up to switch the tapes and we were struck by the realization:

We had to wait.

Again.

Because rewinding a VHS tape takes time. A surprising amount of time.

The first rewind, we talked about how people used to watch movies and why “be kind and rewind” was such a popular phrase. By the third rewind, we had settled into a rhythm.

We colored.

We crafted.

We talked.

At one point, we even started another movie that was only available through streaming. For a while, the VHS tape was rewinding on a television to our right while a movie played on a flatscreen directly in front of us.

As I sat there, I saw two completely different philosophies of media.

One was built around waiting.

The other was built around immediacy.

The VHS was, and is, objectively less convenient.

But that inconvenience created something modern media often removes:

A pause.

What Happens When We Remove Every Pause?

Streaming platforms are designed to keep us watching.

Autoplay starts the next episode. Recommendations appear instantly. Entire seasons are available with a single click.

These features make media consumption seamless, which is often exactly what we want. And honestly, who doesn't love a good binge-watching session?

But they also eliminate many of the natural stopping points where communication and relationship maintenance can happen.

Having to wait for a tape to rewind created those stopping points for us. It gave us a reason to look away from the screen, pick up something else, and settle into a different kind of shared time.

In my previous post on soft socializing, I wrote about how connection does not always require deep conversation or constant engagement. Sometimes, relationships are built through shared activities, parallel play, and low-pressure time together.

Rewind time created that kind of space almost accidentally. It gave us something to do, but not too much to do. It allowed us to be together without needing to perform togetherness.

Bringing Back the Rewind Break

I am not suggesting that families abandon streaming services and return to VHS tapes.

I am certainly not giving up the convenience of streaming (how else would I watch Love Island or Heated Rivalry?)

But I do think there is something worth learning from rewind time.

We can create pauses even when technology no longer requires them. Here are a few ways to do so:

• Finish an episode and spend 15 minutes coloring.
• Take a walk before starting the next movie.
• Make a snack together.
• Talk.
• Or simply sit in the same room for a few minutes before pressing play again.

The goal is not necessarily less screen time, but instead, creating more opportunities for everything else, too.

At the end of the visit, even after the rewind time, the 11-year-old told me she wanted a TV/VCR combo when she grew up. She said, "I want a 'big girl TV', just like you."

I laughed, but I also understood why.

The appeal was not just the movies. It was the whole experience: the tapes, the waiting, the crafting, the talking, and the little pauses that made the movie marathon feel like more than just watching movies.

Maybe that is what rewind time reminded me of most...Sometimes the best part of technology is not what happens on the screen, but it is what has room to happen around it.