NationStates Jolt Archive

I used to watch six or seven hours a day, when we could only pick up two stations. With cable, and access to 500+ channels, I'm somehow averaging less than six hours a week these days.

I watch the news once a day on weekdays, but I read the news online far more often than that. I've come to the point where I just can't stand the passivity of watching television. So nowadays, I spend a great deal of my leisure time online, where I at least have some degree of interactivity.

What about you? Is dust settling on your TV set? What do you think - is television ultimately a doomed medium?

Television as you know it is doomed, but television as your parents knew it has already hit the bricks.

There will be changes to the way it's used, programed and interacts. At what point do you stop calling it television? That'll be up to the future.

No..maybe in it's current form, but tv is too good of a "simple" kind of entertainment for the masses, and it is very effective in spreading information, advertising, and entertainment.

The glazed-over look on people's faces when they watch TV is rather frightening. With a computer you can atleast witness people reading, contemplating and interacting.

I know the internet is my preferred medium, but I don't think this will put an end to television as we know it.

I cannot imagine myself in your scene. In my country there are few transmitters (tv channels), Internet is not accessible for most of the population. On the other hand, I have asked myself about the Americans, who have so many transmitters, surprises to me that they have not become machines ,literally

The glazed-over look on people's faces when they watch TV is rather frightening. With a computer you can atleast witness people reading, contemplating and interacting.

I know the internet is my preferred medium, but I don't think this will put an end to television as we know it.
What, seriously? Computers are much worse as far as the glazed over look goes. You're attention is actively being held by something that doesn't require very much input. I guess you've never seen people play games for long periods of time.

I cannot imagine myself in your scene. In my country there are few transmitters (tv channels), Internet is not accessible for most of the population. On the other hand, I have asked myself about the Americans, who have so many transmitters, surprises to me that they have not become machines ,literally
No, you're right we have. But what else do you want when there are 100+ channels and none of them have anything good on them.

I voted no. Unfortuantely, this abused form of gratification is being abused so well, it's not going anywhere.
Anytime soon. (sic)

Definitely not. Especially with the new HDTVs that are going to supercede CRTs anytime soon. I don't think everyone will be owning a cable or have a computer capable of watching TV. Even those people with a Cable will simply get more channels to watch. Nothing will suceed a TV I'm afraid.

The glazed-over look on people's faces when they watch TV is rather frightening. With a computer you can atleast witness people reading, contemplating and interacting.

I know the internet is my preferred medium, but I don't think this will put an end to television as we know it.
I'm not a googlemiester, so I can't find the study-but there was a study that showed that the internet has had an adverse effect on peoples reading, promoting them to scan text rather than actually read it.

But without a link thats only so much noise....ah well....

Judging by the cost of my cable subscription the cable company dont think so. I pay it so I guess I dont either.

TV is going the way of a man who ust jumped out of an airplane with no parachute. He's rocketing towards the ocean and there's no hope. No hope at all.

TV is going the way of a man who ust jumped out of an airplane with no parachute. He's rocketing towards the ocean and there's no hope. No hope at all.

That's a bit pessimistic you know. Not that many people have access to broadband internet and have a super-powerful PCs that can play high-quality videos. The TV will at least have its last hurrah in the form of High-definition Television and cable set-top boxes before it finally dies.

Are you kidding??? It's radio WITH PICTURES!!! :cool:

I voted "no", but the point about how much Dobbs Town now watches is true for me too. When we had but 4 channels I would get home from work at around 5.45 and watch TV constantly until about 1am. And then at weekends watch from about 11am to about 6pm, perhaps interrupted with a pub break. But now I have Sky and endless channels I hardly bother. The wife watches a lot of the documentary and lifestyle channels, but me... UK Gold for repeats of Men Behaving Badly, and Alan Partridge. And then I watch football and hockey (soccer and ice hockey that is). That's about it.

I get all my news from the net, and I never really had any interest in soaps or dramas; the mainstay of most TV stations. But that's not to say that I think everyone ever will. TV and the net will just continue to become more and more integrated.

I say no. We'll have Internet on our TVs and TV broadcasting digitally on the Internet. It's convergence! I selectively watch TV shows these days, and pick up news in the Internet more.

I listen to the radio a fair bit too.

If this Reality TV thing keeps up, tv will become non-existant.

Definitely not. Especially with the new HDTVs that are going to supercede CRTs anytime soon. I don't think everyone will be owning a cable or have a computer capable of watching TV. Even those people with a Cable will simply get more channels to watch. Nothing will suceed a TV I'm afraid.

Many CRT tvs that they make nowadays are HD.......i don;t ever think CRT will go the way of the dinosaur....plasma pixelation, at the moment, is slow...if you have fast paced action, the colors blend together, but on a CRT there is very little, if any distortion in the color....the next big thing will be thin CRT (look for them this spring). Each phosphor has it's own "electron gun" therefore coler is crisper and has ever ness respomse time.

Many CRT tvs that they make nowadays are HD.......i don;t ever think CRT will go the way of the dinosaur....plasma pixelation, at the moment, is slow...if you have fast paced action, the colors blend together, but on a CRT there is very little, if any distortion in the color....the next big thing will be thin CRT (look for them this spring). Each phosphor has it's own "electron gun" therefore coler is crisper and has ever ness respomse time.

Goody, no more 4 tonne 21" monitors :D

My TV hasn't been on much recently; all I ever watch is Seinfeld and Family Guy, maybe a couple shows before and after those two for some filler, I guess. Sometimes I just turn it on and put it on Mute while on the computer with music playing, just for something in the corner of my eye. Not something I pay much attention to, though.

Since the beginning of Sunday, I think the TV's only been on for about 2-3 hours altogether, with only about 1/3 of that time being paid attention to.

I used to watch six or seven hours a day, when we could only pick up two stations. With cable, and access to 500+ channels, I'm somehow averaging less than six hours a week these days.

I watch the news once a day on weekdays, but I read the news online far more often than that. I've come to the point where I just can't stand the passivity of watching television. So nowadays, I spend a great deal of my leisure time online, where I at least have some degree of interactivity.

What about you? Is dust settling on your TV set? What do you think - is television ultimately a doomed medium?

Ultimately, television is doomed, but not for a long, long time. Every new development in "information technology" has a high initial cost for the consumer, and many people can't afford, for example, a plasma TV. With the merging of technologies seeming to be some sort of natural law, I suspect TV will merge with whatever the Internet eventually becomes, as will music and radio. Developments in this merged technology will move closer and closer to an "immersive" medium, involving more and more of the user's senses.

Eventually, we may see a technology providing an experience virtually indistinguishable from "reality."

HDTV will give it a new lease of life, I think. And computers can't compete with a 32" widescreen AND surround sound when it comes to watching movies (not that there are any worth watching anymore). Plus the fact that most people have their computers on a desk with a less-than-luxurious office chair to sit at, which isn't exactly great for the family to crowd around.

But eventually, when the idea of an all-in-one PC-based entertainment system catches on, and much-higher-speed internet is a lot more wide-spread (Britain is a little far behind in that respect -- 1mbps is considered very desirable, and even in urban population centres (such as my estate, until December 2003) there are a lot of people who simply can't get connected because the necessary technologies haven't been fitted/activated), I have a feeling that ultimately, TV will be broadcast on-line, and it will probably be a lot more interactive as a result.