Will TV ever die out like in Star Trek?

[Brent]

Ok, we are all familiar with how for some reason in the future of Star Trek, TV went the way of the dodo.

My question is, do you really think our future will be like that?

Cause I really don't. All I see now is TV evolving, but still of very high interest and entertainment for well, everyone. I can see it evolving into a more "on-demand" kind of thing, where streaming movies and shows are prevalent, but I really don't see the TV dying off anytime soon. I think that is one thing about our future Star Trek got wrong in predicting.

 

[RoJoHen]

Not until you can buy a holodeck from Best Buy for about $99, and I don't see that happening anytime soon.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Yes, it will become more interactive, more like the Internet; possibly merge with the internet. The TV we knew in the past-- a broadcast station and a receiving antenna-- will no doubt vanish into the quaintness of history.

 

[Similitude]

Eventually, yes. In 200-300 years, maybe not, depends how fast technology develops.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

Depends what you consider as TV death or TV Evolution. Would you class a holodeck evolution of the TV? would you consider the ability to plug your brain into a media device as evolution of the TV?

 

[little_chris]

I think TV (as we know it) is already on the way out.

 

[Trekker4747]

It'll "die out" but not in the way we think. I don't even think it "died out" in the way suggested in Trek.

It simply evolved into a new form of entertainment.

TV will likely meld someday with the internet and just become a wholy different entertainment form.

Of course, the could be another WGA strike someday that won't get sufficently resolved, leading to a lot more crappy reality shows and then, yeah, it'll die.

 

[John Picard]

Yes, it will become more interactive, more like the Internet; possibly merge with the internet. The TV we knew in the past-- a broadcast station and a receiving antenna-- will no doubt vanish into the quaintness of history.

Another vote for this, although the analog spectrum has been opened up for wireless broadband, which is yet another stepping stone for the Internet. I foresee a future where TV will be a more direct and selective media than what people must endure now.

 

[TheArsenal]

I can't predict if television will be around for any length of time, but I feel there will always be shared, passive, in-home entertainment. Before television, it was radio. Before radio, it was books read aloud and yarns. So one has to believe that entertainment evolution - no matter how advance it becomes - will still keep these properties.

 

[captcalhoun]

given the rise of iplayer, ITVplayer and so forth in the UK and hulu et al in the states, i believe that network television will probably die out by the mid 21st century.

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

I always did feel that Trek was stating that in the future people will no longer sit in front of a viewing screen and watch sports or entertainment programs, and instead will be off reading a book, or listening to Mozart or attending Klingon martial arts classes. And I always felt that was completely ludicrous. People will always enjoy visual entertainment and increased technology will only make the definition and scope of TV broader.

 

[Gil T.Azell]

All that reality TV shit is a step in that direction!

 

[USS Triumphant]

I always did feel that Trek was stating that in the future people will no longer sit in front of a viewing screen and watch sports or entertainment programs <snip> And I always felt that was completely ludicrous.

I agree. But I think the OP overlooks something - when do you EVER see people watching tv on tv? I know on sitcoms you'll occasionally see a couple in front of a tv, or a guy or a small group trying to watch "the game". But it's just a setup for something going on on the show - they can't really be effectively watching TV for all the nonsense around them.

People don't watch TV on Trek because nobody really wants to watch people watching TV - Trek just has a "social message" in-show reason why, whereas other shows don't bother to explain it.

 

[startrekwatcher]

If it continues to be as bad as it has continued being I would hope so.

Most tv shows are crap, we have hundreds of channels with nothing worth watching and not even listening to, the cable news programs are worthless and the talent they used to have is long gone.

 

[Trekker4747]

People don't watch TV on Trek because nobody really wants to watch people watching TV - Trek just has a "social message" in-show reason why, whereas other shows don't bother to explain it.

Well, it's emplied at times that people on TV "watch TV" but, obviously, yeah they don't watch it during the times they're "on camera."

I never entirely got "how" TV "died out" in Trek. I may have fallen out of use in favor of something better -as radio did when TV arrived- but TV was replaced with what in Trek?

What form of entertainment took TV's place? It's unlikely for people to revert BACK to books and live theater but in Trek that seems to be the case. At least we find out in the 24c of Picard's era that the holodeck serves as a form of entertainment, but that's not something everyone has in their homes and it just popped up sometime around 2364 (the holodeck is a new marvel for our TNG heroes). Some form of "holography" likely was around -and suggested at by Voyager's crew- but what?

The *closest* thing I can think of to a in-home entertainment device that we saw was a First Season TNG episode where we see Riker sitting there watching a hologram of a beautiful woman playing a harp or something like that. Hardly stunning entertainment.

 

[ltcmmanderdata]

no. i think tv will be always be around in one form or another.

 

[John Picard]

People don't watch TV on Trek because nobody really wants to watch people watching TV - Trek just has a "social message" in-show reason why, whereas other shows don't bother to explain it.

Well, it's emplied at times that people on TV "watch TV" but, obviously, yeah they don't watch it during the times they're "on camera."

I never entirely got "how" TV "died out" in Trek. I may have fallen out of use in favor of something better -as radio did when TV arrived- but TV was replaced with what in Trek?

What form of entertainment took TV's place? It's unlikely for people to revert BACK to books and live theater but in Trek that seems to be the case. At least we find out in the 24c of Picard's era that the holodeck serves as a form of entertainment, but that's not something everyone has in their homes and it just popped up sometime around 2364 (the holodeck is a new marvel for our TNG heroes). Some form of "holography" likely was around -and suggested at by Voyager's crew- but what?

The *closest* thing I can think of to a in-home entertainment device that we saw was a First Season TNG episode where we see Riker sitting there watching a hologram of a beautiful woman playing a harp or something like that. Hardly stunning entertainment.

Sure it could. It's called a Renaissance, and it has happened in Earth history once before.

 

[ShamelessMcBundy]

I dunno when but this season ... ugh ...

 

[Arrqh]

The real question is, now that we've invented the TV when will people stop going to theater performances?

 

[USS Triumphant]

Sure it could. It's called a Renaissance, and it has happened in Earth history once before.

Or... subliminal marketing techniques embedded both in actual ads and in the tv shows themselves could have played a critical role leading up to World War III. That's how Colonel Green recruited, doncha know?

So of course, afterwards, tv is banned.