Is TV dead?

To people over 40, No. To people 30-40, mixed. To people under 30, yes. To 5 year old - of course yes!

Regular readers of this blog will remember sometime ago we examined a recent article from Australian IT that released figures that Australian's now spent more time online than in front of TV.

While that article was interesting in itself it took my 5 year old son to explain in his way what it really meant to his generation.

My son, like many 5 year olds, is a fan of Spiderman, something I can appreciate remembering when I was 5 I also was a huge fan of Spiderman.

When I told my son I also liked Spiderman when I was his age we bonded on a new father son level. I felt even time cannot bridge this interest.

My son then asked me did I have many Spiderman DVDs when I was a boy. I told him no we didn't have DVDs when I was a boy. "Oh" he said looking sorry for me. 

So he then asked me did I watch Spiderman on the computer. No I told him. I didn't own a computer when I was a boy.

"Oh" he said, "but how did you watch it daddy?"

On TV.

"Poor Daddy" he said.

You see the thought that I could not control when and where Spiderman appeared ala TV to my son seems so backward. To him and others his age Free to Air TV is so yesterday. His generation not only wants to have control of video but they expect it. The thought of some outside force controlling broadcast and distribution seems incomprehensible to a 5 year old today.

When I think of my sons viewpoint on TV perhaps it is no different to a conversation I recall having with my father at about the same age.

My father told  me we were lucky having TV because when he was a  boy they had to go to the pictures on Saturday to watch movies, because no one owned a colour TV or even a B&W TV.

Poor Daddy I recall thinking.....