Signal in the Sky

A couple decades ago, I remember watching an episode of "Star Trek" when one of the characters made the casual remark that television, as a form of entertainment, would/did not last beyond the mid-21st century. At the time when I heard that prediction, I thought it was absurd. What could replace television? Growing up, my parents had a TV in virtually every room of our house--even some of the bathrooms, and there was always a television on. Sure, there were, and have always been, other forms of entertainment, but it seemed like nothing could usurp television completely.

Flash forward to 2006, where the television set in my apartment sits gathering dust. I watch maybe an hour a week at the most. You might expect this to be the part where I snobbily say that I'm not one of those philistines who waste their lives in front of a television set. Actually, though, I watch as much video content as ever before, only I watch it via the internet, not on my television set.

It's not just the YouTube (and other amateur) content that I watch, but the broadcast and cable networks are putting more and more video content online. There is such a wide variety of content online now, which I can watch when I want, that recently, I have mused that if my TV were to die, I probably wouldn't bother to buy another one. Video may be here to stay, but the "television set" and its place in the American home, I think, is moving towards obsolescence. It won't happen right away, since high speed internet access isn't universal in this country, but I think the day will come--perhaps by the middle of this century--when the television set will be a relic of the past.