We recently had our friends Tom and Terri out here for a week long visit and, as it does, our conversation turned to what we've been watching that was interesting. What was the most interesting is how we watch things compared to how they watch things.
Shown above are about one fortieth of the streaming options out in cyberspace. Apparently you can use your smart TV as a computer and get these networks/services to play on it. I have no idea how you do that, but I'm told it is fairly simple.
As I continue to tell anyone that brings up streaming, if it won't connect to my 8-track then it is of little value to me. Just because I spent thirty years in the consumer electronics industry it doesn't mean that I have any, (a) interest in it, or (b) desire to use it. Truth be told I have never downloaded any music to a device and I have no idea how to even start to do it.
Here is my question to those of you that regularly use these services, why? We have about 254 channels on our cable service and if we look hard enough we can usually find one thing to watch. Since we can only watch one thing at a time that works out perfect for us.
We got our first cable box recorder about seven months ago and we use it about three times a month. Now that we are retired we discovered that the shows we like are played over and over during the daytime and we can usually see them then if we need a choice.
Tom and Terri are viewers like many of you I suppose who refuse to watch anything with commercials live. They need to be able to fast forward through them because they don't have four minutes to waste. (Note to others: The commercials are the best part of television.)
They have a love affair with streaming, which is fine, we haven't seemed to miss it just yet. They excitedly rattled off show after show they have seen on Netflix, and Hulu, and whatever other service they were using and were stunned to hear that we never heard of any of them.
We couldn't believe they weren't fans of Rock the Block, or Love it or List It, or any of the shows we watch. I didn't even ask what the cost was to have these services because I knew it was more than we pay for our cable and more than I was willing to shell out to watch TV.
Since we moved to the desert my personal TV viewing has gone from all day and night to about two and a half hours a night, unless there is a sporting event I want to watch. I stopped watching the news and my blood pressure was cut in half. I can't see the Cubs, Bears, and Blackhawks very often and that further reduced my blood pressure.
Now that I have the time I find myself listening to music more and more as my primary source of entertainment. I will admit that I figured out how to get Youtube on my computer and I enjoy watching videos of songs many days of the week. (Lady Gaga's new Top Gun song is great. https://youtu.be/O2CIAKVTOrc )
When I'm not listening to music I have been catching up on my reading. I still love to read good books. I would recommend that instead of wasting your money on streaming services you save it so that you can buy this one when it hits the Amazon book list later this summer.
