The Death of Broadcast TV

[charlesr]

Me and the missus have talked about this a fair bit recently, that we're increasingly wondering if our kids development would be better off if we made an active effort to force them to be bored. The readiness of access to content on demand means there's a constant expectation that they can just hop onto Youtube or a kids kindle etc They're not the best when it comes to playing with toys or sitting through long form film and TV

That's before you get to the quality of the content. I refuse to accept it's a generational repeat of what everyone says about the younger gen - the stuff they watch that is popular on Youtube is actually ****

My kids figured it out on their own. They both decided TikTok wasn't useful and now they watch Youtube, but mostly stuff that's useful. My son pours over climbing tutorials and music creation and then chills out by watching expensive hifi reviews and some nonsense channels. My daughter does the same with Guitar stuff, but for entertainment watches stuff on netflix and Disney.

[Asura]

That's before you get to the quality of the content. I refuse to accept it's a generational repeat of what everyone says about the younger gen - the stuff they watch that is popular on Youtube is actually ****

I personally think it's the same. The difference is that our content wasn't on-demand, which meant we couldn't just watch "what we wanted", "all the time".

Like if I'd had Netflix when I was 9 I probably would've just rewarded the same 3 seasons of Power Rangers from dawn to dusk, day after day. But it wasn't, so I had to watch Newsround, or Horizon, or Mythbusters, or whatever.

[dataDave]

I've observed that kids in my family simply CAN. NOT. DEAL. with being bored. Their parents go to enormous lengths to make sure they never have to simply ask them to sit still and shut the hell up for half an hour, because they know the kids simply can't do it without acting up.

And again, not a judgement, because this just how the world has changed. Part of me suspects they just never had those formative experiences of boredom. And I worry about what that means.

I was bored out of my mind last Friday on a **** job.

Sometimes James complains about being bored, but that's usually just a weak ploy to get back on the Switch. He'll complain for maybe a minute or two before getting his Lego/Hot Wheels out or some activity/colouring books. Once he starts on something else he's very much content for the rest of the day if uninterrupted.

I remember maybe a few instances of being genuinely bored when I was a kid. They were usually just waiting room experiences or such. I had some good toys, and also lived across the road from a popular playground, so that helped. Then it was BMXs and video games not long after.

You can judge away, btw, I don't care. His mum is really strict with him and I actually think he deserves more screen time than what he gets. It's just that I don't want him spending the 12,000 hours it'd require on YouTube working out what's crap and what isn't, or indeed watching Power Rangers on loop, one episode after another.

[Neon Ignition]

I received my Amstrad when I was 8 and I played it plenty but games (even more so once the NES arrived) were something I got for Birthdays and Xmas so a handful of titles had to go a really long way. I think I was in my teens before serious amounts of time went into actually playing games over other interests which exploded as soon as I had my own source of income. Due to this I had tons of time where TV or playing traditionally were the only ways to kill time. I saw plenty old films on C4 and BBC2 as a result of their daytime programming but loads went on toy cars and other toys. Looking back I think it was better for me than if I'd have had access to mobiles/streaming/gaming to the extent it's available now. Having one brief period that almost forces imagination to be depended on.

[randombs]

Japanese TV is the worst I’ve come across so far, but Hirst and Yakumo you two need to shut the hell up about Matsuko Deluxe

She’s a national treasure and her programmes are among the only ones I actively seek out and watch especially since the Open University-style channel (放送大学) got removed from terrestrial TV. That was a sad day for me.

But seriously, I do like the scheduled nature of broadcast TV. There’s less choice paralysis compared to streaming and I’m much more likely to check something out that just happens to be on at the time.

When I visited the UK in June, my dad had got Sky and it’s become sort of live/streaming hybrid service. If switch to a programme that’s already started but is also available in their streaming library, you can choose to start watching it from the beginning.

[Dogg Thang]

I do like the scheduled nature of broadcast TV. There’s less choice paralysis compared to streaming and I’m much more likely to check something out that just happens to be on at the time.

One thing I love about Shudder is that there is always something playing.

[nakamura]

[MENTION=5941]Asura[/MENTION] [MENTION=1482]dataDave[/MENTION]

Kids are wildly overstimulated today and it will cause issues into adulthood.