Writer's Block: Gone with the wind

[jackwabbit]

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The television. Or at least television programming. Well, okay, maybe that will take more than ten years, but who watches television anymore? If you miss a program, you watch it online. If you can't do that for free, then you download it. If you can't do that, you blow it off because there is so much online content available with which to entertain yourself. So, yeah, television as we know it.

Oh, three things...um...landline phones and single-purpose mobile devices (ie, cell phones that are just cell phones).

Comments

[poisonyoulove.livejournal.com]

Now that most people seem to have gotten high def TVs, they're coming out with 3D ones. People (not you, but lots of people! ;P) like seeing things on really big screens! I don't see TVs becoming obsolete anytime soon. :)

Also, I've never had a cell phone, and never plan to. I hate talking on the phone, so I'm not going to pay that much for something I'll hardly ever use.

[jackwabbit.livejournal.com]

A television is just a broken computer. It can only do one thing. It causes us to consume, but not interact. This is boring. And yes, it will take more than ten years, but they are on their way out. Plenty of evidence for this, some of which is seen in your icon.

[poisonyoulove.livejournal.com]

But my TV is bigger than my computer monitor and I much more enjoy watching Dr. Horrible on DVD on my big ol' TV!

But I suppose eventually they'll make huge computer monitors so people can enjoy movies in a home theater system that doesn't technically involve a TV as we know them today?

[jackwabbit.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Thus the "TV programming" wording. I know many people who have ditched their televisions in the past few years, and there are tons of blogs online about the phenomenon. You just don't need one anymore to watch anything.

Those of us who still have one but don't really watch much TV, like me, use it as a monitor only. My TV gets YouTube, Netflix, anything streaming, and can serve as a monitor for either the Mac or GeeBee (my desktop, which has a big enough monitor for most!). It's no longer a TV, and I don't see that changing.

I watch what I want when I want and it's all up to me, not the networks or the programming people. Things like that no longer matter. I heard someone recently call traditional TV "push TV," meaning that for ages it was forced upon us and we were told when to watch it, etc. Not so anymore. Now we run the show, so to speak.

And I don't see that trend reversing.

I, for one, would be perfectly happy to buy shows by the show and save on cable or whatever that way. I have many friends who do just that with iTunes or whatever. It's cheaper and more convenient and you then own the show forever. I see that becoming a trend more and more, as advertisers realize no one is watching the live TV feed.