is TV cool again?

I ask because there was definitely a time not so long ago that nobody admitted to watching TV.  But having spent nearly my entire career at The Nielsen Company, I knew that wasn’t true.  Because we processed the TV ratings.  And plenty of people were watching TV.  Of course, given current technology, I shouldn’t call it watching ‘TV’, because it’s quite likely you’re watching your laptop, your phone, or even your watch. But for this article’s sake, I mean watching creative content on any device and streamed to said device by any network, distributor, company, etc.

Well NOW — everyone admits to binge-watching.  Perhaps an entire season of a TV show in one day.  Downton Abbey, Orange is the New Black, Game of Thrones, what-have-you. And to be clear, they don’t admit it, they brag about it.  So, I think there’s been a reversal. Not so much in overall viewing, but in whether it’s cool or not.  In college, my 3 room-mates and I actually scheduled our classes around the soap opera All My Children.  It was way more important to know who Erica Kane was going to marry next, than to make it to chemistry lab.  I don’t think we admitted it to anyone other than other All My Children (AMC) fans.  With each child I had, I was able to re-fuel my addiction to AMC. And upon returning to work after my youngest, technology made it possible for me to tape the show on a  VCR-tape and watch it when I got home.  I could even fast-forward through the daytime Pampers and Pine-Sol commercials.  (So sexist — but I guess many of my fellow AMC viewers were house wives!)  Again, I only shared that info with other women who watched soaps.  In the ’90’s anyone who got interviewed and asked what they watched on TV, answered with the same “Oh, I never really watch TV.  Unless occasionally to see the news.”  (Like, “I only read Playboy for the articles.”)

But now that it’s 2017, and it’s apparently cool to watch stuff again, I have something to admit.  I mean brag about.  I love TV.  I start every day with the Today Show where Matt and Savannah fill me in on world happenings.  Later, I watch Wendy Williams — 2017’s answer to soap operas; she’s outspoken and funny.  I’m not attached to other shows until the 4:p.m. news comes on.  Everybody today says they hate the news and can’t stand to watch it, but I’m just the opposite.  I’m a news junkie.  I’ll watch from 4:00 straight thru to 7:00 with Lester Holt on World News Tonight.  And if I’m awake, I’ll watch news again at 10:00 and 11:00.  In closing though, you must know that I ALWAYS do something else while watching TV (multi-tasking you know).  Sometimes reading, but USUALLY I’m working on my blog, copywriting, and housework.  Yes, Richie Coldcuts, YES I DO!