Where Do You Watch It?

Remember the old days, when you had to rush home to catch your favorite show on TV?

People would literally dash out of social functions with friends to turn on their television, sit in the dark, alone, and watch their favorite show.

That was if they were polite. Some would just tune into their favorite shows wherever they were, often without asking the host first!

The VCR certainly changed that – but they weren’t fool-proof, occasionally eating a tape, or if there wasn’t enough tape left you’d miss the end of whatever you were recording.

Personal Video Recorders (PVRs) also called Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) have made the recording of television shows almost fool-proof. Almost. If there’s a power failure, or your cable or satellite service goes down, there still is nothing you can do.

That’s where the power of on-demand Internet Television comes into the picture – pardon the pun. It’s on-demand, so you don’t have to worry about missing anything, because you choose when and where you watch.

And because it’s on the Internet, you can be just about anywhere in the world – so long as you have access to the net.

Over 15 percent of Canadian households claimed they got most of their television via on-demand digital media last year. That number is expected to climb to well over 40% over the next decade, and could even go as high as 60% by some estimates.

No longer do you have to run home to ensure your PVR catches your favorite show.

You can be anywhere and watch.

From your bathroom, a party at a friend’s place, work, or even in the park.

Toss in cloud-based computing technologies, and you have some cool television tech – it gives you the ability to continue watching on-demand Internet Television exactly where you left off, somewhere else and on a completely different device!

So that show you were watching on your iPhone during lunch but only got halfway through can be viewed right where you left off, on your connected large screen TV in your living room at home after work!

Though being able to watch on-demand Internet television anywhere can raise eyebrows too.

Listening to someone chatter on their mobile device while in the bathroom stall next to you is awkward enough. Overhearing them watching a television show while they do their “business” is downright dirty.

Not all content available on-demand is suitable for children. As some bus riders found last year, when a man began watching an adult movie on his tablet while on the bus.

Televisions across the globe have been used for years by couples to avoid contact during arguments. With on-demand Internet Television, those arguments can be extended to public spaces, as people continue to avoid each other by streaming their “distractions” on their mobile devices so they don’t have to actually talk to each other.

Speaking of public spaces, society already has become more anti-social, as we spend more time with our mobile devices, than with each other, even in social settings. Just go into any coffee shop that has free Wi-Fi, and you’ll see most people are busy watching their mobile devices, instead of interacting with each other.

Used to be, coffee shops were a great place for singles to mix and mingle, because you could easily go up to a stranger, and have a nice conversation over a couple of hot beverages.

Mobile devices have become gatekeepers in a sense, making it harder to approach someone that you can’t make eye contact with, because they never look up from their mobile device.

Still, it’s better than listening to someone watch TV in the bathroom.

Damn that flushing toilet – now I’ll never know what happened to JR!