This morning, I heard a broadcast radio discussion on the future of television .
First off – the host made the assumption that cable television is some sort of necessity. Wow, if that’s the case – we’re living in the age of abundance.
Second off – I’m listening to this on the radio.
Isn’t that kinda like BP discussing the future of rail?
Either way.
In my household, chances are there’s a Facebook window open more often than a TV is on or a radio is on.
Facebook is compelling for all the reasons TV wants to be. Unfortunately – TV has a lot more work to do to make me care about characters. My Facebook (and I’m sure yours as well) is already filled with people I actually care about. People that impact my daily life directly – outside of Facebook.
The gulf between the stories, concerns, and issues my people and those broadcast TV, radio, or newspaper are publishing is wide, and growing.
It’s as easy to spend your cognitive surplus watching Facebook auto-update as it is watching the latest ultraviolent television production (broadcast or cable).
I haven’t even mentioned Facebook’s video support yet. 🙂
Update: Then there’s the bit about considering maintaining Facebook activity a part-time job in the same way TV is. 🙂
This is a very interesting point. TV is dying in a sense. In my household if you want to watch tv one of the computers has to be plugged into it and Hulu takes over and still I will be on my computer only watching a portion of the program and my partner will be reading or writing.
Television growing up was something that was scheduled. There was a show on at 8pm every Friday that you just had to watch and you did, but those days are long gone. You don’t have to worry about when you are going to see something, you can pretty much watch a show whenever you want on your computer or wait for the DVD release.
TV does have a long way to go in promoting itself in this ever changing climate.
I came across an interview series, discussing this topic, that you might enjoy.
http://www.ourblook.com/Future-of-Television/