“We didn’t have those back in the day…”

Dial radio

We’ve all heard our parents or grandparents saying to us, “we didn’t have those back in the day…” they could have been talking about the technology or everyday things we see and use. I vividly remember my parents telling me that televisions simply didn’t exist. When they were kids and people would have gone to restaurants to listen to the radio for news and entertainment as they sipped their tea and enjoyed their meals. I thought that was strange and couldn’t really imagine a world without my daily dose of TV (cartoons, ABC for Kids in the morning and afternoons) at the convenience of my own lounge room – simply enjoying a radio program with sound, music and comedy seem as though it wasn’t enough for me lacking the colour and visual aspect of TV entertainment.

TV from the 90s

It seemed like a foreign idea to me at the time but now? I guess I’m old enough to remember the days when mobile phones simply didn't exist and we all used landline phones and pagers (use landline to call to a number when you leave a message for the person you’re trying to reach) and yes, the public telephone boxes were still very much in use every day. Back in the day, our TVs had colour but they were also very heavy, chunky and small curved screens (about 20”s) were popular. Now we have bigger and thinner TVs with LCD/LED screens and even have Wifi connection.

Pager 

Imagine if you told the kids today, “we didn’t have those back in the day…” – no mobile phones, flat screen TVs or the internet, it may sound like a foreign idea to children these days too. It might already be hard for us to imagine a world without the technology we use nowadays but another decade maybe it’ll be even feel like a distant memory.   

Where did the TV go?

Didn’t television rule people’s lives back in the day? I remember coming home every day from school and rushing to the television so I could watch my favourite show, The Simpsons. Literally, every school day I would go to after school care and when my mum came and picked me up I would tell her to drive faster so we wouldn’t miss the 6 o’clock slot.

But The Simpsons isn’t even on channel 10 anymore. Or any other channel in Sydney.

And the more I look at it, the more I realise, it’s not The Simpsons. It’s TV. TV’s changed. And when I say changed, I mean no one really likes it any more except people who don’t know how to use the Internet. Why would you wait for your specific, favourite show to come on at a certain time that the broadcasting network decides, when you can choose your own time, whenever you like on the Internet? The Internet provides all things a television does, but with much greater convenience. All you really need is a good Wifi signal, and a willingness to download illegal pirated content and not legally purchase any of it. And to be honest, there aren’t many people you’ll find these days who aren’t willing to bend that part of their moral compass. You get it for free, you get to watch it whenever you like, and you pretty much will never get caught for stealing because it’s almost impossible to monitor all of it.

So no more TV. No more racing home so I don’t miss the 6 o’clock slot. No more excitement to be built up. No more anticipation. The hours spent watching television during my childhood are now just a memory. Do you think there will still be broadcasting stations in the future? Or maybe just monitors where we can download all our favourite shows? Because it seems like that's the only way people are getting their fix of programs these days.