by Valley Hope

Created on: February 04, 2011

If we compared ‘back in the day’ to modern living there would be a very big difference.

The invention of television came about. The world slowly took notice of neighbours and craved the new device. Gradually the streets and cities of the world made impulse buys. It was exciting and it was new. For families, the prospect of having their very own home cinema became too hard to resist. ‘Back in the day’ those televisions were black and white. The screens were small, the programmes were limited but nobody seemed to care. Why would they care? There was wasn’t an alternative...

But it wasn’t long until the new trend was here. Almost everybody took their eyes off black and white screens to gaze at the colour. For example, watching snooker and Coronation Street was more appealing than before.  Now Hilda Ogden could be seen in all her beauty with a background of ghastly wall paper. Not only that though, you could watch snooker and tell what colour was being potted!

Overtime the technology became more advanced. TVs were getting bigger, graphics were slicker and more channels came into play. Those channels needed programmes and programmes they got.  Broadcasters were striving to cash in. They started making more of a range targeting specific groups of people. Catering for children, teens, adults and elderly.  Now everyone has something to watch that interests us. Everyone has interests and broadcasters do their very best to feed us interesting viewing.  Viewing TV is the easiest and most assessable ‘hobby’ not to mention affordable.

Watching TV doesn’t mean you have to watch a TV programme.  Adding to the technology was VHS (Video Home System) which enabled us to record TV that we could potentially miss out on. This gave us another reason to watch the screen of light and picture!  Later on DVD players were introduced budging VHS on the verge of the scrap heap. These DVDs gave a new exciting way of viewing the Television.  Then in children’s bedrooms were Sony playstation’s where any child would sit forever playing Lara Croft ‘Tomb Raider’ or ‘Fifa’ with young eyes staring at the television. I’m not going to ramble on about all available entertainment systems that can be plugged into a TV screen. The point is, people watch TV without even realising. It’s a central figure in most households and premises.

 So the question “how can people spend so much time watching TV?” Well that’s just a question with very many answers and opinions.

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