by James Wallace Harris, 9/1/26
In the 21st century, we often talk about how technology has taken over our lives, referring to the Internet, smartphones, and AI. But we forget the major technological revolution that television brought to Baby Boomers. Thinking about it, I realized that television shows have brought me far more pleasure than all the features of the internet.
I love Amazon, YouTube, AppleNews+, Facebook, Wikipedia, ABEbooks, and all the other websites I visit, but they have never made the emotional impact that sitcoms, dramas, and miniseries have made since 1955.
It would be far harder for me to decide between TV shows, books, and music. In fact, I don’t know if I could decide between those three. I do know that if I had to pick between movies on TV and movies at the theater, I’d choose movies on TV.
Watching TV has brought me so much pleasure that it’s impossible to imagine my life without it. This might sound odd, but the tightest bond I’ve had with my wife, Susan, is watching television together for 50 years. This is even truer since I set up a Jellyfin server and put many of our favorite TV shows on it. Every night we watch two hours of old TV together.
Even though the internet is famous for social media, that feels like a solitary pursuit. I have many internet friends I’ve never met, and I value that, but it’s just not the same as sitting in a room with someone else, even if we’re only staring at a screen together. Most of my childhood memories involve watching television, especially with my sister, Becky, but also with my mother and father.
Of course, that’s kind of sad too. People worry about kids spending too much time with screens, but I grew up with TV screens in the 1950s and 1960s. It’s a shame I didn’t spend more time getting to know my parents, especially my dad, who was mostly a mystery to me.
Reading science fiction and listening to music are the only other forms of entertainment that might equal the pleasure of watching TV. I’ve always tried to make science fiction and music more social by seeking out friends who enjoyed them too. But I’ve never had as many people to share science fiction and music with as I’ve had with television shows.
Starting in the 1st grade, I could always talk with people about television shows, from The Mickey Mouse Club to Star Trek. I didn’t meet someone to talk science fiction with until the 10th grade. A while after that, I loved getting together with friends to smoke pot and listen to music, but that only lasted a few years. Talking about television shows has always been the most useful way to have something to talk about. If you meet someone who likes the same show as you, it often means there’s a reason to be friends.
And even when I lived by myself, television was always a better companion than social media. The Tonight Show and The Dick Cavett Show were often great company on lonely nights before I got married.
But I wonder about young people today. Do they feel the same about television, or do they prefer social media? They seem to get a lot of YouTube and internet influencers.
I’ve always found immense pleasure in reading. And that’s truly a solitary pursuit. Science fiction got its start with the pulp magazine era. Before TV became big in the 1950s, millions of people read pulp magazines. Short stories were incredibly popular. When I was growing up and talked with old guys who grew up with the pulps and radio, I got the feeling they preferred them over television. But didn’t television unite the Baby Boomer generation?
When the power goes out, my wife and I get very restless. We miss TV and the internet. But we miss TV most.
I think I could walk away from the Internet. It’s nice being connected to the world. It’s nice having friends on five continents. I’d hate to have to go back to shopping in physical buildings. I couldn’t find the rare books I wanted without ABE. And I couldn’t keep up with relatives and old friends like I can with Facebook. Plus, I’d feel immense anxiety when I leave the house without my smartphone.
What Susan and I really like is watching complete TV series on DVDs. Of course, I rip them to my Jellyfin server, but there’s something special about watching a
TV show from pilot to finale. We’re currently going through the 264 episodes of Frasier, one episode an evening.
However, when you think about it, isn’t it kind of pathetic that we’ve bonded so tightly with something so artificial as a television show, spending so many thousands of hours glued to a TV screen? I suppose we could have grown up differently, but Baby Boomers grew up with television.
TV was the technology that shaped us. TV was our screen of choice.
JWH
Auxiliary Memory 