There was a time, quite a while ago actually, when if a friend told you about a show they saw on television, you could find that show easily. There were only three channels that it could be on. Three networks actually, CBS, NBC and ABC. If a show started to become popular, well everybody saw it, everybody talked about it. The day after a show aired, you could talk about it with friends, at work it was discussed around the proverbial "water cooler", neighbors would start up conversations "Hey Al, did you watch Bonanza last night", "Sure, I never miss it".
These days, you could watch a telecast of the Emmys and a dozen or more programs can be mentioned among the nominees that you have never heard of. Now your neighbor asks about the latest episode of The Expanse and you have no idea what that means.
How did we get here? How did we lose that shared experience that television was said to offer. If you're old enough, you might remember when they first started talking about cable. Cable will be fantastic it was said. There will be a hundred, maybe two hundred channels to choose from it was promised. No antennas, no commercials! You could watch movies uncut with no advertisements in the comfort of home!
Cable came. And, at first we all saw a lot of the same thing. If you got hooked up, the big draw was HBO. So we all got to see a lot of movies that had just finished there first run at theaters. It was cool really. Now at work, you could tell a couple of co-workers you just saw The Godfather and one of them comes back with "Yeah, I saw that on Wednesday." Back to chatting about it around the cooler.
Those other channels started coming. There were hundreds and then some. Some of them turned out to be stations from other markets. There you were in Boston watching TV stations from Chicago or Atlanta. Well it was kinda neat but then you realize these stations were playing the same stuff you could see on UHF channels you already had! The three networks you already had were still your go to.
But cable evolved. There started to be a network for old "Classic" movies, then how about 24/7 news. Soon churches would televise prayer gatherings and preaching. Independent stations found a niche showing reruns. Apparently there was a need for Gilligan's Island all day long or a weekend marathon of The Brady Bunch. And, of course, the news channels begat other news channels. Now many news sources with many news opinions.
Cable opened up a Pandora's box of different content. Your neighbor was watching Turner Classic Movies, your co-workers were watching CNN, your mother was watching The 700 Club. The news you watched seemed to be somewhat different then the news Joe from the club watched. The "water cooler" didn't seem like a familiar place anymore. We all got caught up with programs we liked and to extent grew apart from others who were caught up with theirs. Streaming has added another dimension, you can control your content, when you want it. Now you can be watching every season of Breaking Bad or binge on The Wire while your sister-in-law is having a Walking Dead marathon.
Did cable play a part in fracturing our sense of community? Now that we all watch different things and we no longer all listen to Walter Cronkite have we lost a sense unity? Does viewing many opinions divide us? I guess the optimistic outlook would be that having many sources should be a good thing. Diversity can be healthy I suppose. Now as a friend tells us of a new show we have to listen more closely. We may not be paying the extra $10.99 for Hulu+.
