I Watch Less TV and Cable Now.

This is probably the biggest difference in my life now. Growing up in the 70s and 80s, I lived in a 2 television household. One TV was a smaller portable black and white television that I often watched in the kitchen or in my bedroom with my 2 brothers. The other color television stayed in the living room. It was too heavy for my brothers and I to carry it. Indeed, the television likely required 2 people to carry the television, or one very fit person with a strong back.

So growing up, I watched a lot of TV shows and sometimes syndicated movies on broadcast networks. I saw some of the classic series over the years, and then some shows that may last one or 2 seasons.

My family also invested in premium cable television and later a VCR device and video game consoles. Atari, HBO, and a Nintendo console. Even more time in front of the television. Probably a good fraction of my life was in front of the TV watching some of the theatrical movies, some made for cable series, playing the early more primitive video games. I was entertained enough back then.

I still love some shows, like I’m still a big Simpsons fan. But over the past 10 years, I started to drift away from watching so much television.

Maybe streaming services have a lot to do with that, having a laptop and smartphone changed my viewing habits even more. I replaced one screen for another.

I don’t know exactly why my viewing habits changed. I think I became wiser and more experienced, and became more familiar with the tropes and cliches of TV series. Like I can’t really tolerate laugh tracks on sitcoms any more, cuz some of the jokes on shows aren’t that funny. Other times, television shows like dramas reference real life events, such as real life crimes. I can read about the unsanitized real life events online instead.

But also maybe I spent too many days coming home from work or school, and ended up watching television or playing video games alone for hours. Not always, cuz I will still watch television with others, but it’s often sport games or a show or movie I’m not that invested in. I think my attention span dwindled over time. I have other interests now.

So TL;DR version. I grew up in a 2 TV set household watching a lot of television and I eventually drifted away from that to the point where I barely watch any TV or cable programs. I’ll read online articles, go on social media, or play more simple video games on my smartphone.