Wednesday 2nd September

I am old enough to remember (just) life before television, or to be more precise – the arrival of television into our lives.  Father switched it on (we weren’t allowed to) and I was permitted to watch maybe one hour of TV a night.  Then gradually they started broadcasting all day Saturday and Sunday and then Breakfast TV came along and then 24 hour telly.  Finally we had SKY with literally hundreds of channels and i-player, so that no matter how busy our lives, how many screens we were watching, we could re-run anything any time.  Now kids not only have 24 hour CeeBeeBees but a multitude of channels, and the TV is always on; even this is not enough as almost every child has more DVDs than I will ever own and knows how the player works.  And even this is not enough, many have access to, if not their own, their parents i-pads or game-players.  And even this is not enough, they know how to switch on Mummy or Daddies mobile phone and how to access their favourite App (something I have never achieved – hahaha).  So they are practically stuck in front of a screen for most of their days.  By the time they are teenagers they have their own mobile phones and are constantly looking at the tiniest of screens (living their lives in a miniature screen universe).  As young adults they will be nigh-on un-separable from their screens, even scrolling down during meal-times or while watching (Oi – I was watching that) TV.  Then they will have children of their own and to keep them quiet they will stick them in front of screens….

No use complaining about it, it is the modern way.  And I too will shortly finish writing this blog on one screen and switch on my Kindle and read another screen….If things progress we will all end up stuck perpetually in front of a screen, communicating by keystrokes or the faintest of nods of our heads, our whole world encapsulated in that little screen; maybe a more virtual reality than any of us will be capable of actually living.