It is still all monocultural for me as I only speak one language and poorly at that! Thank God I don’t have to watch the channels with other languages! As a guy whose grip has traded baseball bats for softball bats and is now mostly handling a remote and trying to remember lines from the DUKE like “That’ll be the day” I like being able to dive in at a selected movie or series and then grab the next desired morsel. I like those Australian oddities and a lot of the Brits and Bollywood. Fortunately the weather is nice here and I can go to the balcony sometimes and watch people walking their dogs, cycling or surfing before re-aiming that little black box in my hand. 👊
I absolutely loved the millennial perspective of this piece, which did its job of reminding me what television viewing was like in my childhood. I am old enough to remember thinking that the only reason my parents had children was so my dad could sit in his Archie chair (years before All In The Family) and tell whichever one of us was in the room to walk over and turn the actual dial on the TV to change the channel to one of the very few options we had - CBS, ABC, NBC and Channel 18 on VHF (look it up). On a slow TV night during a muggy summer it could be exhausting.
And then came the first remote, which was slightly bigger than a pack of cigarettes (look it up) and basically consisted of an on/off button, an up/down channel button, and a volume button.
On the one hand, yes, with so few options you did have the shared community of shows that everyone watched and talked about, but if you weren't home when the show you loved aired, or your parents wanted to watch something lame on another channel, or you had homework, or you were grounded because you'd been caught with heroin or something, you were out of luck until, if you were lucky, you caught the episode you'd missed during summer reruns. And if you missed it then, you had missed it forever. Or until it went into syndication years later when you were either in college or in jail for that heroin thing.
Now, you can watch every show that's ever been on, pretty much anytime you want, plus Canadian curling! And you can pause them when it's time to call your mother, or your significant other wants to tell you about a fascinating article they just read online about the history of paprika. I'll take today.
I was born when TVs were coming to market like before the 1950s . You are right. Streaming is a major lifestyle change. I remember when the choices we had were channels 2,4,5, 7, 9,11, and 13. There were no VHS tapes or DVDs. Not even a replay button on your TV. Now I can’t tell you the names of all the networks and program options we enjoy.
But ya know there was something magical about waiting for a week to watch or consume your next entertainment option. It was something to look forward to. Now, in the age of instant satisfaction all you need is enough time to binge through your favorite show. I think I liked “monocultural viewing”. Life was just simpler !
DVDs are passe. So I have a huge collection that are no longer necessary. That's the real issue. I want my money back. But seriously, in the old days, the choices were so small I was forced to watch Lawrence Welk with my parents. Although the Lennon sisters were cute. Particularly Peggy
The real effect of having so much programming to choose from, and the almost constant cell phone typing, is that I now have arthritis in my right thumb. Since I can't go back in time, I'm practicing left thumb clicking. Took me 30 minutes to tap this comment out.
It is still all monocultural for me as I only speak one language and poorly at that! Thank God I don’t have to watch the channels with other languages! As a guy whose grip has traded baseball bats for softball bats and is now mostly handling a remote and trying to remember lines from the DUKE like “That’ll be the day” I like being able to dive in at a selected movie or series and then grab the next desired morsel. I like those Australian oddities and a lot of the Brits and Bollywood. Fortunately the weather is nice here and I can go to the balcony sometimes and watch people walking their dogs, cycling or surfing before re-aiming that little black box in my hand. 👊
I absolutely loved the millennial perspective of this piece, which did its job of reminding me what television viewing was like in my childhood. I am old enough to remember thinking that the only reason my parents had children was so my dad could sit in his Archie chair (years before All In The Family) and tell whichever one of us was in the room to walk over and turn the actual dial on the TV to change the channel to one of the very few options we had - CBS, ABC, NBC and Channel 18 on VHF (look it up). On a slow TV night during a muggy summer it could be exhausting.
And then came the first remote, which was slightly bigger than a pack of cigarettes (look it up) and basically consisted of an on/off button, an up/down channel button, and a volume button.
On the one hand, yes, with so few options you did have the shared community of shows that everyone watched and talked about, but if you weren't home when the show you loved aired, or your parents wanted to watch something lame on another channel, or you had homework, or you were grounded because you'd been caught with heroin or something, you were out of luck until, if you were lucky, you caught the episode you'd missed during summer reruns. And if you missed it then, you had missed it forever. Or until it went into syndication years later when you were either in college or in jail for that heroin thing.
Now, you can watch every show that's ever been on, pretty much anytime you want, plus Canadian curling! And you can pause them when it's time to call your mother, or your significant other wants to tell you about a fascinating article they just read online about the history of paprika. I'll take today.
I was born when TVs were coming to market like before the 1950s . You are right. Streaming is a major lifestyle change. I remember when the choices we had were channels 2,4,5, 7, 9,11, and 13. There were no VHS tapes or DVDs. Not even a replay button on your TV. Now I can’t tell you the names of all the networks and program options we enjoy.
But ya know there was something magical about waiting for a week to watch or consume your next entertainment option. It was something to look forward to. Now, in the age of instant satisfaction all you need is enough time to binge through your favorite show. I think I liked “monocultural viewing”. Life was just simpler !
There are just too many choices today.
DVDs are passe. So I have a huge collection that are no longer necessary. That's the real issue. I want my money back. But seriously, in the old days, the choices were so small I was forced to watch Lawrence Welk with my parents. Although the Lennon sisters were cute. Particularly Peggy
The real effect of having so much programming to choose from, and the almost constant cell phone typing, is that I now have arthritis in my right thumb. Since I can't go back in time, I'm practicing left thumb clicking. Took me 30 minutes to tap this comment out.