Evolution of Me + TV
When I was growing up, I lived a stone’s throw away from my older cousin Sam, who lived across the street from me. And when we were young, we spent all of our time outside.
When we got home from school, we would play pickup basketball in his driveway, ride our bikes around the neighborhood or go on missions that our parents would take turn sending us on. I like to think that we had a sort of neighborhood gang. My sister was a part of the crew, and so were some of the other kids in nearby houses, and we rode around like we owned the place.
I remember we would host lemonade stands, build leaf forts and have snowball fights. We would spend hours in the tree house behind Sam’s house or play kickball in the basement on rainy days (much to the despise of my aunt and uncle when one day we kicked a dodge ball directly into a ceiling light). But our imaginations were definitely in full gear, being used every day to propel us on our next adventure.
And I think one of the factors that played into why we spent so many hours creatively spending our time was because we only had local stations on our home televisions and watching the nightly news wasn’t exactly one of our priorities. Neither one of our households had Disney Channel, Nickelodeon or other stations that would be appealing to elementaryaged kids.
Whenever we would go over to my grandfather’s house or when we would go on summer vacation to Florida, we were able to access some of those “special stations,” but other than that, we didn’t watch too much TV.
Somewhere along the line, both of our families shifted over to getting cable service/Direct TV, updated our wireless networks and found more computer games worth buying. In the middle of a transitioning society, those changes were understandable and adapting to technological advances made logical sense.
But things were still different than they are now. In the early 2000s, if you didn’t have a VHS player or those “new DVD players,” you resorted to live television. Oh, and for those who rented from Netflix in its earlier days (my family), there was no streaming option. We would get a DVD in the mail, watch it within a week, and then send it back and request another one be sent our way. Live streaming wasn’t a concept during my childhood.
But now, because of technology and societal advancements, the options are practically endless. If you want to watch a specific show or movie, you can choose from Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, station-specific streaming websites, iTunes, etc. And if you can’t find what you want on there, you can flip through the channels on cable networks to see what else might catch your eye.
I don’t think television is necessarily bad. I think it’s something that can be used for either good or bad, but in itself, I don’t believe it’s either of those. I think movies can bond a group of people maybe more than reading a book can, and playing a game of kickball with neighbors can probably create more connections than sitting in individual homes watching individual shows can. With all things, moderation is key.
I don’t know where along the timeline of my life the shift into technology-based living happened. Likely, it was gradual and something I didn’t notice at first. Maybe it started when I became heavily interested in music through listening to Pandora on my laptop. Or maybe it was when I got an iPhone going into college.
Either way, I don’t know that it matters. What I think matters is what I do with the information and technology that I have. What matters is how I use it.
Over the past few years, I’ve had shifts in my relationship with not only television, but with technology in general. I’ve gone months without watching anything but occasional YouTube videos, and I’ve spent hours binging “Schitt’s Creek” on Netflix.
Sometimes I feel guilty when I spend time watching a show when I could be talking with friends or visiting with family. But other times, when I’m working or out with friends, I often do look forward to watching that next episode of “Downton Abbey” or “The Office.”
I haven’t quite found a balance yet, and reminiscing on memories from my childhood, it’s easy to idealize what used to be without realizing the great potential of what resources we have in the present day. What I come around to is that being aware of my relationship with television, my phone, music, technology, etc. is what matters. It matters that I’m thinking about these things and challenging others to think about their habits as well.