The Lens:
Last weekend, I was parked in my usual spot in the living room. My son was sitting in the chair next to me. I don’t particularly like silence. I am not a daytime TV watcher, so most of the time, I have the stereo on for background noise.
My son, on the other hand, can do with out the ambiance. If he is studying, I will turn off the music for his academic sake. Most other times, I turn down the volume to minimize the intrusion on his space.
I picked up the remote. As I was adjusting the stereo volume from across the room, I thought to myself, “remember when we had to get up to change the volume.” I looked over at my son and another thought popped into my head. I told him what I had been thinking and added that he probably doesn’t remember such a time. He answered, “No, I don’t.”
Here is a more complete view of the old days:
Back in the day, we had to get up to turn on/off or change the volume on the stereo. We also had to get up to turn on/off the TV, change the channel/volume, etc.
As a kid, we didn’t have cable. It didn’t exist. No DVRs either. We had 4 VHF stations and PBS. Eventually, UHF stations were added – all two of them. That gave us a total of about 7 channels we could watch.
We never just sat down to watch TV. There was a TV guide in the newspaper. You would look at the guide for shows you wanted to watch. Say you wanted to watch “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” and it was on Saturday at 8:00pm, then you sat down at 8:00pm on Saturday to watch the show.
When it was showtime, you went over to the TV, turned it on, selected the channel, tuned in the picture with the antenna, adjusted the volume, went over to the couch, sat down, and watched the show from start to finish. No getting up. No adjustments after that. You just sat and watched. When the show was over, you got up, and turned off the TV and went on to another activity.
Depending on your age, this might be quite nostalgic or quite laughable.
The Refraction:
I could go in all sorts of directions here, couldn’t I? The most obvious is the generation gap. But, that isn’t at all what this little incident made me think of next.
If you read my “Go All the Way” post, I talked about our mate’s annoying habits. Here comes another of my husband’s that drives me nuts.
We usually turn on the TV after dinner. We have a few shows we watch – all prerecorded. Occasionally, we will watch the national news. We usually have one series at a time we watch. Currently, we are watching “Vera” through Prime. We are also “Jeopardy” fans, though it isn’t quite as much fun without Alex Trebeck.
If my husband sits down before I am ready – here it comes – he starts channel surfing. I just don’t get this at all. The things that catch his eye are eclectic and absolutely baffling – preachers, Spanish soaps (we don’t speak enough Spanish to understand what is going on), old black and white TV shows, cop shows, etc., etc., etc. – none of which interest me. I guess the good news is he won’t stay there long. Soon, he is off to another random show.
That can also be the bad news. If I happen to sit down and not be interested in watching anything, he continues on with his surfing. Inevitably, he will pause on a show that starts to catch my interest. As soon as I am sucked in, zap, onto the next.
If we do watch a show, once I go to bed, sometimes it is back to surfing. Other times, he will turn on one of “his” shows that I don’t particularly care for. He was a big “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul” fan. Me, no.
I used to have “my” shows but gave up on that a few years ago when I quit my job, and went back to school to become a teacher. It has been a ridiculously busy last few years. Teaching is a tiring profession. Pandemic teaching is exhausting. Sleep has become my new pastime. But I digress.
Today, we have no shortage of TV viewing options. My husband and I have cable TV with a few hundred channels and Netflix. We also have access to Prime, Disney Plus, and Hulu. Call me crazy but I am also thinking of becoming a PBS member – many of the shows I would like to watch are on PBS.
All that said, let’s compare today’s TV watching to that of my younger days.
While I like having a wealth of programs to choose from, I think our overall viewing habits have had a considerably negative impact on our society. If my husband is any indication of the broader population, he spends way too much time watching TV.
It could be a product of getting older. But, I think it is more likely that having so little free time at my disposal, it grates on me to see my husband waste so much precious time sitting on his behind watching TV, and half of that time he’s watching nothing.
It is one thing to say, “I want to watch this show (like ‘Breaking Bad’) because I find it entertaining, so I will sit down and watch it.” It is another to surf for hours looking for something to be entertained by.
We have become TV addicts. And, I blame the remote control. That one little invention, one meant to make our lives a little easier, revolutionized our viewing habits and, in the process, our lives.
I can’t imagine cable TV, or any of the subscription services, taking off without the remote control. I will suggest another little experiment. The next time you watch TV, pretend you don’t have a remote. I say “pretend” because most TVs just don’t work without them anymore.
Get up, walk over to the TV, and use the remote to turn it on. Stand there while you use the remote to select your channel. No cheating jumping from say CBS to ESPN. Scroll the channels until you get to the one you want.
Then, each time you want to change something on the TV, get up, walk over to the TV, make your change, then go back and sit down. I have no doubt, channel surfing ceases to exist without the remote. Either that, or it becomes a fad exercise regime.
I also would venture to guess that your TV watching time decreases significantly. Even if you are a devout DVR user like me to avoid all of the commercials, you will need to get up ever commercial break to fast forward through them.
I am tired just thinking about it.
I watched “The Big Interview with Dan Rather” featuring Buddy Guy. He was born in the south in the 1930s. He talked about being the son of a sharecropper, the lack of luxury (no electricity/plumbing, a woodburning stove, cooking from scratch including grinding your corn for cornbread), Jim Crow. Though discrimination is still sadly prevalent, that kind of life no longer exists.
History is full of forgotten perspectives. Like my son who grew up with remote controls, unless you lived in pre-remote times, you have no idea how that little device dictates the time you spend watching TV and what you choose to watch.