Way back in 1985, estimates claimed that about 500,000 Americans owned their own camcorders. Well, fast forward to 2007, and that number has jumped to approximately 16,000,000. There's a variety of reasons for such the drastic increase in personal video camera ownership, such as price, accessability, more choices and brands to choose from and they've just become simpler, better and easier to use.

Perhaps one of the strongest reasons why more and more people are purchasing camcorders is because the importance of family and documenting family events has become much more noticeable. Now, people have always valued family above all else - it's not like people just forgot about the family altogether. But, in the early to late 1990s, a trend called cocooning became more popular. That is, people spending more money on home entertainment items, like TVs, video games, sound systems, and video players. As a result, people spend more and more time at home rather than going out.

And because people were spending more time at home, the importance of the family would have been showcased, and the need to record and document the family became greater. Now, that's not to say that recording your 6 year old's birthday party is the only reason to purchase a digital video recorder - but, for a long time, it was a big part of it. Remember America's Funniest Home Videos? When it first came out, a majority of the movies were of candid or funny events recorded at family gatherings.

Anyway, the camcorder has become the weapon of choice to document and record any important events. Whether it be a family reunion or a vacation in an exotic location. No longer are people saying "you should have been there" because they can share that experience with others first hand with their own camcorder.