About a year ago, when I purchased a Smart TV for my apartment, I was able to access a variety of free streaming platforms, including Pluto TV. What was significant about this channel, I soon found out, were all the classic TV shows from my childhood and youth available to watch at any time.
Let’s go back 40 years, shall we, to a time when the Internet was still the stuff of science fiction, computers were slowly becoming commonplace in the workforce - but still lightyears away from being mainstream - and our ability to access entertainment was limited by the times when shows were scheduled on TV.
For those who have never known a time without having whatever video or show you want available whenever you want it, what I am about to say may seem hard to believe – or at the very least, archaic.
Yes, us kids back in the 1980s and into the 1990s watched our favourite shows when they were on. If your family had a VCR, it was possible to record these shows to watch them later.
By the 1980s, many Canadian homes had cable or satellite dishes, which brought more exposure from the outside world into their homes. However, if you were like me and grew up in a rural area, there were normally only a few channels to choose from.
This is a far cry from today, when people are almost overwhelmed by choices when finding something to watch.
Yes, we live in a very different world right now in so many respects, but that has always been the case. Throughout history, as people got older, they have looked back at the era in which they grew up in and have been surprised - and even shocked by the unprecedented changes that have occurred since then.
But thanks to this advancement, many of the shows I watched as a kid, particularly classic sitcoms that are still popular today, are kept alive because of modern technology, something that I am grateful for.
On these long, cold winter nights, there’s nothing quite like sitting back on the couch with a snack and travelling back in time a few decades.
