The Death Knell for Television (at least at our house)

For years now our family (Mom, Dad & Teen) have been early adopters in the Smartphone / Video space. Dad works in the video industry and Teen is very “multimedia” – music, art, and online social media. Mom is more business – but needs to stay in touch almost 24 / 7 due to the nature of her company and service (banking – I heard what you thought). So, we picked our devices respectively: Dad has a Droid, Teen has an iPhone and Mom has (had) a Blackberry.

Mom likes the evening news and is an old-school channel surfer – generally ending up on a Network show (The Voice, Parenthood, etc.), Dad likes movies and generally goes to Comcast OnDemand to check out what’s on HBO / Starz but Teen went out and bought a PlayStation 3 – so Netflix slowly made its way into our living room. Teen actually went off to College recently and took said PlayStation with him, so Dad bought a NetGear box for $49 so we could continue to the enjoy Netflix (“Troll Hunter”, “Tokyo Gore Police”, etc.).

Recently Mom’s Blackberry had been showing signs of aging (screens popping up that say “Throw me away, I’m obsolete”, no internet connectivity, no email, no YouTube videos, pictures the size of a thumbnail that you can’t enlarge) so Mom decided to drink the KoolAid and go iPhone. Dad figured this was safer than her getting a Droid because the onus of re-education would fall on the Teen – and thus, Mom entered the iPhone world.

All of a sudden, all the stuff that she had been missing with the Blackberry came pouring into her world: videos were shared, images were uploaded, Facebook worked again and so, so much more. Now Mom loves watching videos on her iPhone (Dad long ago discovered the joys of late-night HBO GO on the Droid) so it’s an endless stream of animal videos, Christmas light videos and gurgling baby videos – especially at night. Last night I noticed something of a shift – for years Mom has been watching “That 70’s Show” – something about the characters remind her of a particularly interesting time in her own life and she says Dad is just like Red Foreman. She normally falls asleep to the wacky antics of these pot-smoking teens – but last night was different.

Mom was watching all kinds of videos on her iPhone, while “That 70’s Show” played on in the background –annoying Dad who said “Honey, pick one or the other – TV or phone video!” and just like that, a multi-year tradition came crashing to end – Mom reached over and turned off “That 70’s Show” and continued to watch a baby being snatched up by an eagle on her phone.

And so the transition was complete: Mom was checking out Facebook videos on her iPhone, Dad was trolling for guitar parts on Craigslist, the Teen was doing something (we’re just sure) on his iPhone and the TV? It was off – for the first time in the History of The Family – no one was interested in what was on. An auspicious moment? Not in and of itself – but if this scene is played out across households all across America (as I believe it surely will) then we only have one question to ask: For Whom Does the Bell Toll? It Tolls for TV.