"Back in the day," we used to watch live television. You turned on the tv, tuned in a channel, and watched whatever was coming over the airways. The show started at a particular time, and ended at a particular time, and it had commercials. If you got there five minutes late, you missed the first five minutes of the show. If you had to go to the bathroom or grab a drink from the kitchen, you missed whatever was on tv while you were out of the room.
We seldom watch tv anymore. We watch you-tube videos. We watch DVDs, both for movies and sit-coms. We watch Netflix shows.
This is very hard for Maggie to understand. Live television has been explained to her, but she has so little experience with it that it's hard for her to truly comprehend. If we're watching live tv (such as the Superbowl) she may tell us to "put it on pause" while she leaves the room to fetch her colored pencils.
It happened again yesterday. I was listening to the live-streaming of the synodical convention. Katie called to ask mommy-advice about split chins on children. Maggie was having a booger of a time finding the "pause" button on the live-streaming. I told her she could just turn down the volume, but she didn't want to do that. She knew I'd miss something, see?, if she didn't stop the "show" while I was gone. She was trying to be helpful.
It always shocks me when I realize how little she understands about the difference between broadcasts and recordings. But then, why should she??
Thursday, July 15, 2010
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It makes me wonder what will be different for my kids when they are adults.
ReplyDeleteTo confuse things further, we have a DVR that automatically records whatever you're watching, even if you're watching live. So we can pause the "live" TV any time, and fast forward past the next commercial to catch up.
ReplyDeleteWhen we were on vacation it was the first time my 4 year old remembered watching live TV since we gave up TV 1 1/2 years ago. We immediately had to make a rule that there was no TV until they were dressed in the morning. My oldest got upset if he had to miss one minute of TV to get dressed or do something for me because he understood you couldn't go back and watch it later. They got angry that Dora wasn't "on demand" like their movies at home. They didn't understand that if we woke up earlier or slept in then Dora wasn't on and there was no way to make Dora be on at a different time.
ReplyDeleteA whole different issue is that when I was little you only saw movies in the theater. The reason why I like Winnie the Pooh so much is because it was one movie that my parents approved of and took me to the theater-there was no chance to watch movies at home except for when movies were on TV.