Here Comes The 21st Century- At Last

[poliphilo]

According to a story that passed under my nose the other day young people are no longer bothering to buy TV sets. And why should they in the age of Netflix?  It's early days but I can imagine a time- not perhaps so very far in the future- when the box in the corner of the living room will be as obsolete as the telephone landline. Who'd have thought- twenty years ago- that those two staples of late 20th century living would have such a short shelf life?

And then there was the article about how we'll all be giving up our private cars and instead- as needed- rent self-driving vehicles from some central source- and how that's going to transform our cities. This seems more SF than the prediction about TV but who knows? Apparently Uber is buying self-driving cars- and a business like that doesn't invest in new technology just for the fun of it.

Comments

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

We stopped watching television in December 2008. Then a couple of years ago, we bought a big display panel and a Chromecast dongle. Now we watch Netflix on a big screen and are rather happy with it.

I can't imagine being subject to the whim of broadcasters, anymore.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

We gave up our television a couple of years back. My mother still has one- and I sometimes watch it with her- but I could happily- more than happily- do without it.

[basefinder.livejournal.com]

It does seem that the Watching of Programs has taken two divergent paths: The home television gets ever larger--55" screens seem to be the norm now, but watching on tiny screens--4" or 5" on phone or mini-tablet also gets more popular.

For me, why would I watch on my tiny phone when I have a (now small) 42" screen sitting conveniently across from my sofa?

The self-driving car phenomenon is fascinating. Maybe its lucky for us that the technology is advancing at the same time that human drivers can't be relied upon to lift their eyes up from their phones? I'm just surprised we don't have more distracted driving accidents.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

These days I mostly watch film and TV on my laptop.

It's illegal in the UK to use a phone while driving but this doesn't seem to stop people.

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

Doesn't stop people here, either, and the police don't seem to be paying attention.

When I lived in the apartment on Tulip Street, I didn't have a TV. I didn't miss it much, except for tennis tournament time. When I move where I am now, cable is 'free'. (It isn't really, they just tack the money on to the rent.) So I have a television and spent way too much time watching it. My internet connection is way too slow and my laptop far too unreliable, to watch anything there.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

We have a TV that doesn't get much use at all. My daughter refuses to buy one...she says with computers and tablets she doesn't miss it at all.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I don't suppose I'll ever buy a TV again.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

I've never owned a television. I haven't watched anything but baseball and the occasional nature documentary on my husband's in decades. I was always the outlier and now it's the new normal.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

There are TV programmes I want to watch- but I mostly get them through the computer

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

You know what, i view all my telly on the laptop now, and very rarely the TV.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Me too.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

We have a TV set that we use as a monitor for our AppleTV and DVD player. When I'm home alone I watch a lot on my office monitor (24") but there's only one comfy chair here so that doesn't work for shared viewing.

I went without a TV for huge chunks of time -- 1967-1980 except for one year in the middle of that time; 1994-today except for a year or two. From 1980-1994 I had TV thrust upon me by our blended family but kept it exiled to the kids' rec room in the basement.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I lived without a TV in the later 1980s- until my kids got me to buy one.

[kamomil.livejournal.com]

Maybe there will be TV cafes where young people go to experience how it was to watch TV together. The same way a few bars have a stack of board games for people to play.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I think that's quite likely. There will always be those with a passion for obsolete technologies.

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

I was perhaps on the leading edge here. =:) Back around 1997, when CD-Rs were finally cheap and reliable, I started getting into mail-based ordering of anime - all fansubs, no profit involved, and both cheaper to send around the world and without standards messing matters up (yay NTSC and PAL). The net took over a few years later, first by IRC and Hotline, then Usenet and BitTorrent.

We still use a TV, but almost exclusively as a large monitor, usually driven by the BD player, which acts as the network media player, fed by our respective collections. Some of that's UK-based, mostly from me, some worldwide.

Personally, I don't tend to get around to TV very much, despite there being plenty to appreciate, from the travelogues of Stephen Fry and Joanna Lumley, to the wonder and intrigue of Extant, the bittersweet drama of Orange is the New Black, and more. There are a very few series that I do (mostly) tend to keep up with as they air, especially MasterChef and friends, Doctor Who (which we'll usually actually watch live, so to speak), and My Little Pony. That's mostly on Hazel, my MacBook Pro, but sometimes also on the iPad Air, depending on where I am at the time. (Yes, it's only a 9.7" screen, but full HD, so if I'm holding it at a normal distance, it's similar to a large TV - just much more capable)

I'm very much in favor of self-driving cars, given how terrible many people are at driving. Besides, if I go out to eat and drink, I certainly don't want to have to abstain from a good pint or three, or sharing a great bottle of wine - I'm 100% happy with letting the vehicle take care of the mechanics of getting me from one place to another, leaving me free to enjoy the benefits of said relocation. ^_^