10 ms·

It's honestly been amazing to see the utter decimation traditional television/media has encountered over the last decade. An entire generation of kids is growi

It's honestly been amazing to see the utter decimation traditional television/media has encountered over the last decade. An entire generation of kids is growing up without ever having watched TV thanks to Youtube and Twitch.

claudiulodro 6y ago
To be fair, there were only ever like 4 generations in the history of the world that grew up watching TV. Interesting to think about!
- msla 6y ago
  For most things, appointment media is going back to where it was prior to the 20th Century: Live performances, including sports, where seeing it with a crowd is part of the appeal. Scheduling your day to catch a program, be it "Fibber McGee and Molly" or "Leave It To Beaver" or "Cheers" or "Friends", will seem as bizarre to someone in 2050 as it might have to someone in 1850.
  - dhosek 6y ago
    YouTube does occasional appointment media. Early in the pandemic, they did a global showing of Yellow Submarine that required watching at a specific time on a Saturday. It was my kids' introduction to the movie.
- sharkjacobs 6y ago
  And cable television as we know it has only existed since the 90's, generously since the 1980's
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - dhosek 6y ago
    Not generously. It was very much a thing in the 80s and most of the channels of the 80s are still strong although there is the ineluctable transition of all basic cables towards showing nothing but Law and Order reruns.
javajosh 6y ago
The screen is the thing. Broadcast TV to CRT displays was never important; the human eye and ear glued to a glowing rectangle of changing light and sound, that was the thing. Now, the screens are everywhere, on the wall, in our pockets, and can show us anything anytime. It has revolutionized entertainment to the point where each individual can mine his or her own seem of addictive content that shuts off the critical mind, to provide respite from an unfriendly world occupied by humans zombified as they descend into the mindless void of the screenhole. So, yes, the economics of it is fascinating, and horrifying, as billion dollar companies exist to create the artificial scarcity information requires to monetize. But the side effect should always take center stage: we relegate each other and ourselves to staring into the glowing abyss in our pockets, each compulsive viewing rightly characterized as a suicide in miniature.
- Swizec 6y ago
  Broadcast vs on-demand is crucial. There’s a huge difference between having a captive audience that has no choice and producing content people choose to consume.
  - TeMPOraL 6y ago
    You can sort-of achieve a poor man's "on-demand" by providing bazillion cable channels, but real on-demand delivers a qualitative difference: you no longer schedule your life around your TV, but watch at your convenience.
  - baddox 6y ago
    I think that's less of a huge difference when a small number of platforms dominate online media and aggressively use algorithms to determine or strongly influence what content people see. Yes, you can still absolutely find beautiful niche content on YouTube, and I value that a ton, but YouTube still has immense control over people's viewing in aggregate. It's a little bit like traditional broadcast TV if there were a billion channels but after every 3 minutes of viewing the TV chose which channel to flip you to unless you were constantly diligent about manually choosing what you want to watch.
lacker 6y ago
Yes... over the weekend I discovered that my kids (ages 5 and 7) did not know what a "channel" is.
- TeMPOraL 6y ago
  Huh. Good point. If ever I have to explain it to my daughter (age 1.5) at some point, I'll probably have to say that a channel is like an unending YouTube livestream with pre-planned content...
- jrott 6y ago
  I'm not sure if my 11 year old knows what a channel is now. A couple of years ago I remember having to explain what a landline phone was.
  - saagarjha 6y ago
    YouTube channel?
kumarvvr 6y ago
Yup. I became a father in 2015. Bought a TV in 2019. Never got a cable connection. Just bought a FireTV stick and have never ever felt that I was missing something. My kid loves to speak to the remote and watch youtube cartoons. My wife is into regional language soaps and there are a myriad of apps that stream them. I have Amazon Prime for my Seinfeld binges. Some movies that I ahem get from the interwebs, I stream from my PC using VLC player app. And all this in India, with a capped (200 GB a month) broadband connection. Never once experienced delays / lagging / buffering. And the base cost is Amazon Prime (15 USD per year, plus it has Prime benefits, Prime music, etc), internet (12 USD per month), misc apps (30 USD per year). On average, that is about 20 USD per month (but that includes cost for Internet that I would pay for anyway, so actual incremental cost is 5 USD per month), for almost unlimited content. A standard Cable connection would alone cost me about 10 USD a month.
zwayhowder 6y ago
An actual conversation with my son a few years ago: Son: Dad you said you've never lied to me... Me: I don't believe I have. Son: You told me you loved Looney Tunes when you were my age, but you also told me that YouTube didn't exist when you were my age. So how could you have loved Looney Tunes when you were my age?
- ksec 6y ago
  Tell me this is not true......
  - zwayhowder 6y ago
    All true. I should add he is on the high functioning end of the autism spectrum, but still I remember my shock when I found out that my mum had to watch TV in black and white...

claudiulodro 6y ago

To be fair, there were only ever like 4 generations in the history of the world that grew up watching TV. Interesting to think about!

msla 6y ago
For most things, appointment media is going back to where it was prior to the 20th Century: Live performances, including sports, where seeing it with a crowd is part of the appeal. Scheduling your day to catch a program, be it "Fibber McGee and Molly" or "Leave It To Beaver" or "Cheers" or "Friends", will seem as bizarre to someone in 2050 as it might have to someone in 1850.
- dhosek 6y ago
  YouTube does occasional appointment media. Early in the pandemic, they did a global showing of Yellow Submarine that required watching at a specific time on a Saturday. It was my kids' introduction to the movie.
sharkjacobs 6y ago
And cable television as we know it has only existed since the 90's, generously since the 1980's
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- dhosek 6y ago
  Not generously. It was very much a thing in the 80s and most of the channels of the 80s are still strong although there is the ineluctable transition of all basic cables towards showing nothing but Law and Order reruns.

javajosh 6y ago

The screen is the thing. Broadcast TV to CRT displays was never important; the human eye and ear glued to a glowing rectangle of changing light and sound, that was the thing. Now, the screens are everywhere, on the wall, in our pockets, and can show us anything anytime. It has revolutionized entertainment to the point where each individual can mine his or her own seem of addictive content that shuts off the critical mind, to provide respite from an unfriendly world occupied by humans zombified as they descend into the mindless void of the screenhole. So, yes, the economics of it is fascinating, and horrifying, as billion dollar companies exist to create the artificial scarcity information requires to monetize. But the side effect should always take center stage: we relegate each other and ourselves to staring into the glowing abyss in our pockets, each compulsive viewing rightly characterized as a suicide in miniature.

Swizec 6y ago
Broadcast vs on-demand is crucial. There’s a huge difference between having a captive audience that has no choice and producing content people choose to consume.
- TeMPOraL 6y ago
  You can sort-of achieve a poor man's "on-demand" by providing bazillion cable channels, but real on-demand delivers a qualitative difference: you no longer schedule your life around your TV, but watch at your convenience.
- baddox 6y ago
  I think that's less of a huge difference when a small number of platforms dominate online media and aggressively use algorithms to determine or strongly influence what content people see. Yes, you can still absolutely find beautiful niche content on YouTube, and I value that a ton, but YouTube still has immense control over people's viewing in aggregate. It's a little bit like traditional broadcast TV if there were a billion channels but after every 3 minutes of viewing the TV chose which channel to flip you to unless you were constantly diligent about manually choosing what you want to watch.

lacker 6y ago

Yes... over the weekend I discovered that my kids (ages 5 and 7) did not know what a "channel" is.

TeMPOraL 6y ago
Huh. Good point. If ever I have to explain it to my daughter (age 1.5) at some point, I'll probably have to say that a channel is like an unending YouTube livestream with pre-planned content...
jrott 6y ago
I'm not sure if my 11 year old knows what a channel is now. A couple of years ago I remember having to explain what a landline phone was.
- saagarjha 6y ago
  YouTube channel?

kumarvvr 6y ago

Yup. I became a father in 2015. Bought a TV in 2019. Never got a cable connection. Just bought a FireTV stick and have never ever felt that I was missing something. My kid loves to speak to the remote and watch youtube cartoons. My wife is into regional language soaps and there are a myriad of apps that stream them. I have Amazon Prime for my Seinfeld binges. Some movies that I ahem get from the interwebs, I stream from my PC using VLC player app. And all this in India, with a capped (200 GB a month) broadband connection. Never once experienced delays / lagging / buffering. And the base cost is Amazon Prime (15 USD per year, plus it has Prime benefits, Prime music, etc), internet (12 USD per month), misc apps (30 USD per year). On average, that is about 20 USD per month (but that includes cost for Internet that I would pay for anyway, so actual incremental cost is 5 USD per month), for almost unlimited content. A standard Cable connection would alone cost me about 10 USD a month.

zwayhowder 6y ago

An actual conversation with my son a few years ago: Son: Dad you said you've never lied to me... Me: I don't believe I have. Son: You told me you loved Looney Tunes when you were my age, but you also told me that YouTube didn't exist when you were my age. So how could you have loved Looney Tunes when you were my age?

ksec 6y ago
Tell me this is not true......
- zwayhowder 6y ago
  All true. I should add he is on the high functioning end of the autism spectrum, but still I remember my shock when I found out that my mum had to watch TV in black and white...