Broken TV remote reminds us of how different things are for kids

[Zoneboy]

Link


The remote control for our living room TV stopped working recently. While that probably doesn't seem like a big deal on the surface, it's a pretty good example of one of those little events in life that starts you reflecting on how much things change.

I guess it was probably just worn out from years of use, because not even a fresh set of AAA batteries was able to resuscitate our remote, and I'm sure its passing was hastened by the untold number of times it had been dropped or fallen off the couch onto the hardwood living room floor.

In any case it's kaput and had to be put down.

The other day, I walked into the room where that still remote-less TV sits and found my daughter lying on the rug in front of the TV with her toes positioned up on the entertainment center in such a way that she could change the channels and adjust the volume without having to move.

I didn't ask her, but I was pretty certain that she didn't even for a second entertain the idea of sitting on the couch to watch TV and getting up whenever the channel required changing from "Hannah Montana" to "Sponge Bob Squarepants."

On one hand I thought to myself that by using her "digit-al" remote she was displaying pretty resourceful problem solving skills, and I was surprised she hadn't sought out one of our TVs that has a functioning remote.

But on the other hand I had to laugh at just how good a metaphor the television remote control is for illustrating how much different the world I grew up in is from that in which my kids are growing up.

Now, while I realize this would be an ideal opportunity for me to launch into a rant about how much simpler and better things were in my day, that's not my intention. My intention, as is often the case in this space, is to have a little fun scrutinizing the differences between my youth and that of my kids.

From my perspective the TV remote is still relatively new technology, because I can remember growing up and having televisions that didn't have a remote control. My sisters and I were the remote. "Jeff, will you flip it to channel six please? Barney Miller is about to start."

But my kids, on the other hand, have never known television without remote controls, hence my daughter's positioning on our living room floor. To them the idea of having to actually get up off their hind quarters and physically touch the television is as foreign an idea as putting a needle onto a spinning piece of grooved vinyl to hear music play.

The first remote I remember us having when I was young had an on/off switch and channel up and down buttons. I still had to adjust the volume of the TV by hand, but to me it was the coolest thing ever.

While the function of the remote control itself hasn't changed a whole lot over the past 30 or so years, their capabilities certainly have. My kids can change the channel, adjust the volume, order and watch a movie, rewind a program or record a program; all without moving anything but a thumb.

They don't know how good they have it.

If there's any point to this at all, it's that I find interesting how technology continues to be a driving force behind generation gaps, and even though I know kids are better off reading a book, I can't help but imagine how my kid's kids will view TV and how they will change its channels.

Well, I better get going. I have to turn off my IBM Selectric typewriter, go buy a stamp and walk this thing down to the mail box so I get it submitted in time to make my deadline.

[dakert]

In our family we didnt have to worry about changing channels as we only got one CBS (Thank God) I was always touching the tv set, actually it was a black and white tv that I had to pound on the side with a shoe to get the thing to come in. My dad was "thrilled" with me pounding on the tv at 7am saturday morning trying to get Bugs Bunny LOL

[Zoneboy]

I remember when I was a kid trying to pick up channels with a bent coat hanger and I could get several especially late at night. Weekends were great because I watched old shows like Twilight Zone, Dobie Gillis, Wanted: Dead or Alive, Sgt Bilko, Outer Limits, Flash Gordon serials, Get Smart, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Man from U.N.C.L.E. Death Valley Days, NWA Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, NWA Worldwide Wrestling and so much more. The sad things is that while I could get all those great programs with a coat hanger, I can't find much worth watching today. Some of the shows I watched back then are still being aired but now the credits aren't being shown or they're squashed like a bug while someone talks over them Logos are in the screen constantly plus I have to look at those annoying pop-ups that promote the next show after every commercial break or at certain intervals.

[catlover79]

Thank goodness for DVDs of the classics is all I can say!!!

[Marvo301]

Originally Posted by catlover79

Thank goodness for DVDs of the classics is all I can say!!!

AMEN!!!!!

[Zoneboy]

Originally Posted by catlover79

Thank goodness for DVDs of the classics is all I can say!!!

[catlover79]

^

[robyrob]

i remember when the dial broke on our TV and we had to use a pair of vice grips to turn the knob and change the channel.

[*Pleasant Tomorrow*]

Yeah, I'm not gonna lie...if I don't have the remote nearby, I get up to grab it and then use it to change the channel rather than the buttons on the TV I just passed by.

[MickeyMac]

I am showing my age, but I remember when you wanted to change the channel or turn up the volume you had to get off your ass and go to the TV and do it.


Nowadays they put everything on the remote control that if you break it or lose it, your TV is pretty much useless.

[Furienna]

I'm in mid-20s, but I can't remember a time without remote controls for the TV sets. Of course, we used to have a couple of old sets (one of them was so old, that it didn't even have color), where you had to walk up and manually change the channels or the volume. But all of the four TV sets, that we now have in our house, have a remote control. And let's not forget the remote controls for the VCRs, the DVD player and the satelite receivers...

[70s show watcher]

i remember way back in 1976 the picture tube went out on iour tv and we went and got one from one of those old carts where you got them yourself at the store and no sooner had we got the picture tube fixed then the sound tube gave out oh what a mess

[Vito]

I never used a remote control until I was in college, when my family got cable TV for the first time. It was probably 1986 or 1987. It didn't matter, because I had lots of practice changing the channel and adjusting the volume for my dad when I was a little kid. I often wondered why my parents took so long to get a TV with remote control. Looking back, I can see that they probably couldn't find a remote control that matched our rabbit-ears antenna.

Funny thing...when I was growing up, owning a TV with a remote control was sort of a status symbol. Hardly anyone in my middle-class neighborhood had a remote control, but almost all of the kids in the nearby country-club neighborhood bragged about having one (or two)!

[MickeyMac]

Originally Posted by robyrob

i remember when the dial broke on our TV and we had to use a pair of vice grips to turn the knob and change the channel.

We had to do that in my home as well.

[Goldilocks]

Originally Posted by Zoneboy

Link


The other day, I walked into the room where that still remote-less TV sits and found my daughter lying on the rug in front of the TV with her toes positioned up on the entertainment center in such a way that she could change the channels and adjust the volume without having to move.

I admit: I did the same thing in the mid-1980's because the TV didn't even come with a remote.