The other day found us enjoying a quiet coffee but we could not help overhearing a group at the next table. They were passing judgement on recent TV programmes. Nothing unusual about that I suppose, because many people must still watch TV and the BBC licence scam is enforced as rigorously as ever.
Yet oddly enough it did seem unusual. The conversation sounded old-fashioned, a reminder that people do not seem to watch as much TV as they did a few decades ago. It used to be a popular source of casual conversation on a par with the weather, but we certainly don't hear it discussed as much as we used to. Folk play with their mobiles instead.
6 comments:
Because it's such rubbish now.
James - clings on though. Don't know how.
It might be that lots of people still watch TV, but the gazillion channels means that it is not the unifying cultural experience it once was. We are all watching different rubbish rather than the same rubb....er, I mean "The Golden Age of British TV".
Sam - I have the impression that many who would have watched TV a few years ago are now online doing all kinds of things apart from passive watching. Maybe Facebook is now the unifying cultural experience, equivalent to the BBC when that was all there was.
If you did not watch TV back then you had nothing to talk about in general conversations. You were also thought to be a little strange. We find much modern stuff unwatchable. The golf is an exception because of its nature, but the sound goes off because of the commentary guff.
Demetrius - we still encounter a hint of the "thought to be a little strange" effect whenever we say we don't watch TV, but only among older people.
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