The Dreamer's Pen

Okay, I just have to talk about Marion Stokes because… wow. She spent over 30 years recording television. Every single day. News, talk shows, commercials,you name it. I absolutely love what she did!!!

What she created wasn’t just a bunch of old TV shows, it’s this living, breathing archive of culture, society, technology, and human thought. Watching her recordings, you can literally see how group think changes over time, how trends rise and fall, how people’s fears and desires evolve. You can see the evolution of everyday objects and hear the shift in popular music. It’s like looking at society under a microscope and also from way up high at the same time. And she did it quietly, persistently, for decades, without asking for fame or recognition. That alone blows my mind.

Sometimes I get lost on YouTube watching old TV commercials from her archives. I don’t know why, but it’s endlessly fascinating to me, how products were sold, what was considered “normal” or desirable, how people presented themselves. It’s like tiny anthropology lessons, and I can’t get enough of it!

Also this is a small, nerdy thing, but I have to mention it… Erm, I love the DTMF tones in some of the old footage. As a kid, I was obsessed with those little beeps and clicks. I wanted to understand why they were a thing and what they meant.

Later I learned they were just the machines telling themselves they’d reached the end of the tape. Hearing them again in her recordings feels like hearing the heartbeat of the archive itself. It’s such a small thing, but it makes the whole thing feel alive and human in a way that’s hard to explain.

I think what draws me to Marion Stokes so much is that she saw value in things most of us would think are disposable or unimportant. She noticed the patterns, the little moments, the subtle shifts, and she preserved them. That’s such an INFJ thing to resonate with: seeing the currents under the surface, wanting to understand them, wanting to keep them safe for reflection.

Watching her archive is like time travel. It’s not just nostalgia, it’s insight. You notice how society changes, how mistakes repeat, how fleeting trends seem massive at the time but now feel quaint or even ridiculous. It’s humbling, it’s fascinating, and it sticks with you long after you stop watching.

Marion Stokes gave us something extraordinary: a mirror of our culture, preserved in motion. It makes me want to slow down, pay attention, notice the small details, and maybe even be a little more like her—curious, persistent, and aware of the bigger picture. She didn’t just record television. She recorded humanity. And every time I dive into her archives, I feel a little closer to understanding not just our past, but the invisible threads that shape who we are today.