Today's generation missed the good stuff

[oldtvman]

So you are a kid growing up in the fifties and then you walk by a tv store and see the most amazing thing ever! A tv set with color images on the screen.

We didn't have play stations, internet, cell phones and so on.

This was one of the most remarkable inventions of it's time.

[Sandy G]

Cell phones-Hmmmmpf ! Damthings are about the worst things ever invented. I reckon 95% of the teenage girls in America would shrivel up 'n' absolutely DIE if they were suddenly deprived of their precious cellfones...

[jeyurkon]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

Cell phones-Hmmmmpf ! Damthings are about the worst things ever invented. I reckon 95% of the teenage girls in America would shrivel up 'n' absolutely DIE if they were suddenly deprived of their precious cellfones...

Try walking across a college campus. One handed drivers, bicyclists and mindless pedestrians all playing bumper car. It really bugs me when I see two people who are friends with each other walking together and one of them is spending all their time on their cell phone. The pedestrian texting is pretty clueless about his environment also.

Oddly enough I wasn't excited when I saw my first color TV. I think it was because the screen seemed so small compared to the cabinet it sat in.

John

[Aussie Bloke]

From my point of view, technology is continuously evolving but at an exponential rate to the benefit and dis-benefit of people. To my opinion of cell phones (known as mobile phones in Australia), it is always handy to have one especially in the event of emergencies as it saves having to try find a phone booth and when you're out bush that would be impossible to find a phone booth hehehe, however people seem to communicate less in person and more over mobile phone, MSN or Facebook but it's individual choice.

With technology of today, yeah colour TV is a natural part of our lives and it isn't as amazing as it was when it first came out, but that's like anything from the invention of the radio, the telephone, the Nintendo, the Playstation etc., amazing when first on the shelves but become second nature as it is more easily available to the public.

The interesting twist though with colour television, there are young enthusiasts like myself who get exposure to the history of colour television and see some of the earliest colour videotape recordings from the 50s and the TV sets in operation via YouTube and we think "WOW it's absolutely amazing that colour television was of THAT great quality way back then" and so I can equally appreciate the amazement of the invention of colour television and how remarkable the quality was. Looking at early colour videotape recordings is like looking at reality 50 years ago which is astounding. I can guarantee if that Eisenhower tape was played to a few hundred teens, a number of them would be gobsmacked that colour television was of that high fidelity decades before they were born. I have shown some of my friends who are in their 20s some of these early video recordings and they were totally amazed of the quality of the pictures produced back then.

So I dare say there can be a younger generational fanbase for the early days of colour as I've been finding when people hit their 20s and mature a bit they start broadening their horizons outside the bounds of their pop culture and look to other things of amazement, for example my younger cousin whom I use to think as a stereotype club goer listening to the latest R&B and diva pop has been getting into classical jazz by Miles Davis and krooners like Frank Sinatra. As for myself I'm 28 and the history of television technology is one of my biggest passions and so I'm continuously searching for early video recordings to get a feel of what TV was really like back in the day especially colour and have taken up this interest when I was in my mid teens.

[drh4683]

I should have been a victim of the video game generation but thank god I wasn't. I was interested in being outside, taking things apart or building something.

I was out to dinner with a couple friends a few weeks ago and couldn't resist but to take this photo as its just so typical of what I see today. If this doesnt explain that there is a serious problem than nothing will. Here two people go out to dinner on a date and instead they ignore each other and both are texting. I see this all the time and it makes me sick. Everyone (especially my age) is so dependent on their little cell phones. That all gaze into them like nothing else in the world matters.

In my own experiences while dating, I've been interrupted numerous times as she "had to go outside and text someone really quick". Sorry, I don't go for that.

I thought the idea of a date was to be with the other person and talk to them and enjoy their company? I guess I'm not up with the times....

Technology is really hurting people, social skills are going way down. Everyone wants to email or text instead of call on the phone as this way, they can avoid the confrontation and the emotional factor if the call is for unpleasant reasons, or avoid being put on the spot if someone asks a question you dont have a good answer for. I deal with this all the time at work too. People also like to email and text as a log to cover themselves incase of a problem or something goes wrong. "I told you about that in my email on september 8th, what the hell, hurry up". Now you're automatically at fault as there is conversation proof. To sum it up, it basically goes like this: "screw you hooray for me".

[batterymaker]

Not to mention this fact:

The advantage of a cell phone: You have access to contact anyone at anytime.

The Disadvantage of a cell phone: Everyone has access to contact you at anytime. Especially your colleagues at work.

So, you wind up with an electronic ball and chain. You never can get away from your workplace.

[3Guncolor]

I agree with Doug. Email where I work is way out of control. Nobody calls anybody we all run around checking our Blackberrys. One button I hate is “reply to all.” I can get the same email from 10 different people when their reply is to someone else. Because I have worked at the same place for 25 years I remember how it was before e-mail. Anyway I now have to spend hours managing my “in box”. A lot of it is to cover their butt as Doug said.

[Aussie Bloke]

I personally don't often make phone calls on my mobile phone, I use it here and there but I take preference to talk to people face to face. I mainly use my phone to check my Facebook and my email on Hotmail.com. So I'm quite happy having a mobile as it's there whenever I need it to call people, but I don't go overboard like drh4683's friends hehehehe. As for dealing with issues, I prefer to talk to the person face to face as they will understand me better and I will understand them better.

Anyhow I did have a rather unpleasant experience with mobile phone usage. One of my really good friends was over, normally we talk and I show her cool stuff on YouTube and we enjoy ourselves, but this one night she spent the whole entire time making mobile phone calls to friends and making text messages I couldn't get a word in and I felt a bit sad. Thankfully it was only that time she did it. I did talk to her about it as I felt upset I couldn't talk to her that night and she understood and realized for herself that it wasn't her to be like that.

Anyhow mobile phone technology is the way of today and future to our advantages and disadvantages. Also I've been offered by a couple of people to become an ACN representative and have been studying on how the business works and products and they are pushing forward the video phone which is going to be the next generation of mobile phone technology. It's advantage is the visual conversation between one another so family/lovers can talk to each other over the globe and see each other too. However the disadvantage would be teens and young adults would pretty much make little face to face conversation with each other and take preference to video phone each other instead.

[andy]

---

[Greg B.]

Originally Posted by drh4683

I was out to dinner with a couple friends a few weeks ago and couldn't resist but to take this photo as its just so typical of what I see today. If this doesnt explain that there is a serious problem than nothing will. Here two people go out to dinner on a date and instead they ignore each other and both are texting.

Well, they look like they were made for each other...

In some ways nothing has changed that much -- if you are of the generation that grew up in the 60s or 70s you will recall how most teenage girls could spend all night on the home phone talking to their friends. It's just now that the mode has changed and they can do it anywhere.

Texting is something I simply do not get. I don't want to have to respond instantly whenever someone decides to contact me. But obviously the present generation accepts it as normal.

I have so far been able to avoid having to accept a Blackberry at work. I despise the things. They are terrible as phones, and hugely compromised as a text entry mechanism or email reader. But to me the most important thing they do is cause you to be forced to respond to someone at anytime. My colleagues think nothing of sending messages at midnight. It is simply ridiculous.

[Glenz75]

I have a cellphone but don't like using it much, only when I really have to and text when needed.

As a kid growing up in the 1980's (34) I recall watching TV and seeing the adverts for computers and basic gaming machines, back then it seemed all so amazing. I remember the excitement when we got out first VCR and new colour TV back in 1984. That VCR is still going (National NV-450) but the TV died years ago.

To me life seem simpler back then, or maybe this is my own perception as I was only a kid? These days it seems that most people are rushing around to get things done rather than slowing down or am I imagining things?

By the way I have been a lurker on this forum for a wee while as I have a collection of b/w and colour TVs.
Here in New Zealand we first got television in 1960 and colour in 1974 for the commonwealth games, so I guess NZ was a little behind the 'eighth ball" in comparison to some other countries.

I have never seen a full tube operated colour TV in the flesh. All our colour sets were full solid state being the 1970's. Some of the 1950s-60's colour sets you guys have are really awesome

I hope to post some pics up of my TV collection one day so you can see some New Zealand made televisions.

Cheers!
Glen

[bgadow]

Bring them on, Glen! I always enjoy seeing older sets from around the world.

Cellphone? I still don't own one. Really. On road trips we have my wifes. But nobody needs to get ahold of me that bad...and vice versa.

[bandersen]

I was finally forced to get one for work, but barely use it.

Speaking of the good stuff, it has been cool to experience the technological advances of the last 5 decades. I've gotten to use and enjoy (usually) vinyl, reel-to-reel, 8-track, cassette, video disc, laser disc, beta, vhs, CD, mini-diss, DAT, DVD and so on. and then there's the personal computer explosion....

[sweitzel]

I'm rather disheartened that CRT televisions were so quick to make an exit over the last few years. The image on a plasma or LCD flat television just isn't the same. It's too smooth, too over saturated, and too smeary. Viewing a program from a digital source such as digital cable or satellite on a CRT television looks far better than the current flat panel televisions. The only non flat panel system left that makes the content bearable to my eyes is a DLP projector.

I think those who maintain and preserve these vintage sets are in an extra special category. Someday there will be a generation of people who will have never seen images from a CRT based television, nor will they have experienced watching a movie at a cinema projected from real film.

While I don't yet own any vintage televisions, I do have good quality CRT sets throughout the house. I also have a fully equipped 35mm and 70mm theatrical projection system in my house that fills a 12 foot wide screen. I collect film prints of titles that are near and dear to my heart. Despite some of my friends not being able to tell any difference in the visual texture of television reproduced on a CRT versus an LCD or plasma flat panel, all of them have confessed to me that watching a movie from a film print brings about a quality and texture that cannot be matched by any electronic reproduction. It definitely makes me feel happy when my friends and family are continually excited to come over to watch a print of a film and can clearly appreciate the difference instead of lounging at home in front of their Vizio televisions.

[Glenz75]

Ok I will try and take some pics in the next week or tow of some of my sets and post them up for ya all to see. The majority of our early black and white TVs were based or copied from british designed sets, the advent of colour we had a mixture of Philips/Pye/Sanyo/NEC) but some brands were home grown...
Cheers
Glen

Originally Posted by bgadow

Bring them on, Glen! I always enjoy seeing older sets from around the world.

Cellphone? I still don't own one. Really. On road trips we have my wifes. But nobody needs to get ahold of me that bad...and vice versa.