To play devil’s advocate; being on your phone is an isolating activity, while watching the TV is generally more communal, and was especially so in the era in which Boomers have spent most of their life.
Millenials and most Gen Z have shows that everyone watched growing up, but that’s going away increasingly, with on-demand streaming and customized feeds replacing the latter. I think it’s a very obvious culprit of why young people today struggle to talk to one another.
This. For better or worse people would gather to watch a show at a particular time and day. It often turned into much more of a social event than a let’s watch this show event. A thirty minute show was a several hour gathering of people. Laughing, eating, having a good time.
And you could talk about it the next day with your friends in school.
A lot less choice and everyone watched the same things.
The experience can only be compared to a football final these days.
Honestly, I’ve kinda grown to hate these phones, yet I find myself constantly going back like it’s a digital addiction. Compared to entertainment media prior to these horror pocketbricks, seemingly everything had more novelty. TV/Movie nights were special and shared with family, and man it was always fun picking out what CD to pop into the player. Gaming sessions were entertaining because my brother would join, and we’d have a couch party with a GameCube, or even a Nintendo DS with a multiplayer game. He was such a screenpeeker.
It plagues me that the more I think on it, I truly dont feel it’s nostalgia, there seems to be a lost novelty, and the phone and internet largely seemed to replace it all. Now, couch parties are had as a Discord call, movie nights are supplemented with a customized YouTube feed. Even the era of personal websites are fading away.
On a side note, all those things are possible for us to have today, yet we don’t. It feels like a conscious decision to pursue convenience over connection, but why did we pick this path?
To play devil’s advocate; being on your phone is an isolating activity, while watching the TV is generally more communal, and was especially so in the era in which Boomers have spent most of their life.
Millenials and most Gen Z have shows that everyone watched growing up, but that’s going away increasingly, with on-demand streaming and customized feeds replacing the latter. I think it’s a very obvious culprit of why young people today struggle to talk to one another.
I am Gen Z.
This. For better or worse people would gather to watch a show at a particular time and day. It often turned into much more of a social event than a let’s watch this show event. A thirty minute show was a several hour gathering of people. Laughing, eating, having a good time.
You cannot replicate that using a phone.
And you could talk about it the next day with your friends in school.
A lot less choice and everyone watched the same things.
The experience can only be compared to a football final these days.
Honestly, I’ve kinda grown to hate these phones, yet I find myself constantly going back like it’s a digital addiction. Compared to entertainment media prior to these horror pocketbricks, seemingly everything had more novelty. TV/Movie nights were special and shared with family, and man it was always fun picking out what CD to pop into the player. Gaming sessions were entertaining because my brother would join, and we’d have a couch party with a GameCube, or even a Nintendo DS with a multiplayer game. He was such a screenpeeker.
It plagues me that the more I think on it, I truly dont feel it’s nostalgia, there seems to be a lost novelty, and the phone and internet largely seemed to replace it all. Now, couch parties are had as a Discord call, movie nights are supplemented with a customized YouTube feed. Even the era of personal websites are fading away.
On a side note, all those things are possible for us to have today, yet we don’t. It feels like a conscious decision to pursue convenience over connection, but why did we pick this path?