My Father’s Old/New Routine

In a post today at Crowdsourcing.com (where I continue to guest post) I wrote about the changing routine of my father’s media consumption. I want to continue that thought here in oft-ignored Future category of this blog.

I write:

Before the Internet (and I am old enough to remember) when my father
came home from work he sat right down in front of the T.V. and we knew
not to bother him for at least an hour and a half. Understandably so –
he needed to unwind. This unwinding period was followed by dinner and
then more television watching, because there was nothing else to do.
Thank god for “The Simpsons,” a show we could all watch together.

The routine today is a bit different. After dinner he doesn’t return
to the television – he goes straight to the computer. Some of his
activities on the computer are passive, but some are active. He has
changed his daily pattern and has removed some passive media
consumption time and replaced it with active media participation.

It was in reading a follow up post from Rahmin Sarabi that I thought this topic might be worth exploring more. I doubt that Rahmin and I are the only two that have noticed this shift.

Obviously it’s difficult for me to know my father’s daily routines now. I haven’t lived at home since high school. Furthermore, my father is getting ready to retire – so he isn’t burning the midnight oil anymore. Still – there is something to this.

I can remember growing up when the “clicker” (remote control) was the awe inspiring powerful tool to the outside world. Whoever owned the clicker dictated what the family would watch (hence the Simpsons comment.). But – even if my father earned the right to the remote (and he often did) I could watch 60-Minutes quietly because it only required passive participation. Or – I would find my way to the small television in the kitchen and watch Nickelodeon or whatever it is that I used to watch.

I wonder how that family dynamic changes when the center piece is a mouse and not a remote? Because computers beg for active media participation is it easier for families to bond around it, or harder? Perhaps it’s more of a sociological issue than a journalism one, but I think the consequences for that future family dynamic could have far reaching implications.

I’m also curious about what will happen when my father does retire. The first thought that comes to my mind is that he should start a blog. This is an option that wasn’t available to my grandfather – and while I never lived with him either, I’m sure he did a lot of TV watching. Oddly enough – my grandfather would have been a fantastic blogger about gardening, something he was only able to dedicate himself to in retirement.

END THOUGHT.