Even though echo-boomers are the first generation to have access to computers for the majority of their lives (who remembers America Online chat rooms?), the television was the defining invention for baby-boomers. Imagine how life must have transformed! Live, visual entertainment, right in your living room!
From numerous conversations with my parents, this of course wasn't always the case. While I imagined the invention of the T.V. as something where everyone immediately rushed out to the store to buy several(wow how things have changed), for the first couple of years, most people did not even own their own T.V. First you would have that one family in the neighborhood with the T.V. who would invite you over to watch weekly programs like the Ed Sullivan show (kinda like the Late Night Shows of today), which was more likely for those who grew up in suburbia or urban areas. Gradually, ( basically as the price went down) people started to buy their own sets but no, not like today. One television per household please!
What's so fascinating to me and why I highlight this short excerpt in history is to show the ways in which technology (and entertainment) has brought us together. In the '50s and early '60s, families reached out to those without televisions to share in their excitement and experience of watching television. T.V. was strictly a social activity. Today, despite media and technology-driven isolation and distancing oneself from others, I think we still have the opportunity to make technology social and in fact, often do. We can definitely do more in terms of transforming the ways in which we think about individual activities with electronics ( e.g. invite a friend over to play Xbox instead of playing it alone)and we can also be aware of the time we spend alone with technology and time we spend with others.
When I think about families gathering around the T.V. to not only be entertained but to use the television as a way to get together, I'm reminded that I wouldn't be able to do that since I know NONE of my neighbors. In fact my father who visited and was in my building for less than 48 hours, knows more people who live their than I do. Is that rare? I think this is a growing trend and what does that say about our culture? I consider myself to be a bubbly, social being, however I've failed to connect to my community and environment and am for the most part OK with that because I'm aware of it and choose to connect in other ways.
One of the reasons I enjoy using Facebook is because it allows me to re-connect to old friends and family that I don't otherwise regularly keep in touch with. One could argue that bringing people together to sit in front of the T.V. is not the best way to " connect" to each other and also that spending 30 minutes on Facebook a day (my rough estimate for myself)is a waste of time. However, I don't think it hurts to look for different and creative ways that technology bring us together.
Isn't that the point anyway?
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