I just think of the way my own TV watching has changed:
As a kid I was 100% at the mercy of the three whole networks. If the printed TV Guide did not tell you when a show might be on...well, you could guess. Or just watch the network...maybe even see a comericial for it. But you had to be by a TV to watch it...this had people 'racing' home. And if you missed an episode...well, too bad....though you might catch it on a re run.
By my teens we had cable...a massive 30 some channels, but only a very few new shows. But other then the networks, the UHF stations started to show new TV shows too. Though we also had another amazing device: The VCR. Now I could do whatever, and watch the show later. I would even wait a couple weeks and then watch all the shows at once.
By my 20s I watched little TV. The thing that brought me back were the uncensored shows on HBO, like OZ and the Sprannos. By this time cable stations would run older shows everyday, and some UHF stations would run a bunch of one show on the weekends. So I could catch up a lot on older shows.
By my 30s I watched some shows...but few live. With DVR and ON Demand, I could watch when I wanted to. And even here I'd save shows to watch in blocks.
By recent times I still only watch a few shows....but now I only stream shows. I hardly watch anything "live" or "current". In just the last couple years I have been burned too many times: see a good show, watch a couple, and bam, it's cancelled. So to avoid that, I skip such shows and look for ones with more seasons. Now it's "binge watching", but I've been doing it forever. I don't watch each week, I wait until the end of the season so I can watch blocks.
Waiting a WEEK between shows.....yea, I will never do that again.
As a kid I was 100% at the mercy of the three whole networks. If the printed TV Guide did not tell you when a show might be on...well, you could guess. Or just watch the network...maybe even see a comericial for it. But you had to be by a TV to watch it...this had people 'racing' home. And if you missed an episode...well, too bad....though you might catch it on a re run.
By my teens we had cable...a massive 30 some channels, but only a very few new shows. But other then the networks, the UHF stations started to show new TV shows too. Though we also had another amazing device: The VCR. Now I could do whatever, and watch the show later. I would even wait a couple weeks and then watch all the shows at once.
By my 20s I watched little TV. The thing that brought me back were the uncensored shows on HBO, like OZ and the Sprannos. By this time cable stations would run older shows everyday, and some UHF stations would run a bunch of one show on the weekends. So I could catch up a lot on older shows.
By my 30s I watched some shows...but few live. With DVR and ON Demand, I could watch when I wanted to. And even here I'd save shows to watch in blocks.
By recent times I still only watch a few shows....but now I only stream shows. I hardly watch anything "live" or "current". In just the last couple years I have been burned too many times: see a good show, watch a couple, and bam, it's cancelled. So to avoid that, I skip such shows and look for ones with more seasons. Now it's "binge watching", but I've been doing it forever. I don't watch each week, I wait until the end of the season so I can watch blocks.
Waiting a WEEK between shows.....yea, I will never do that again.
