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

[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.