A few weeks ago, I asked my grandfather about his life with television back in his younger days.
Today, I asked him what he knew about the Internet.
The conversation didn’t really last long. Why you may ask?
Because there was no such thing back in this time.
With the help of my mother, she taught my grandfather how to use the Internet for his entertainment. He told me that the Internet is an useful tool that was able to search almost about anything.
Back in his day, if you want to find out about something, you got to do your research. Go outside, ask people around, go to a library. But now? Psh, we just need to search the keywords online and BOOM.
Media practices are changing, or even evolving. My grandfather told me that in his household before, there was only a miniature television, vinyl player and a radio. It doesn’t sound much but in the 50s, it was quite a handful of technology.
My grandfather enjoys using the internet a lot. He is able to search his favorite television shows from the 50s era, on repeat. He is even able to find some old time friends that he lost contact with for decades, through the use of this global network. Compared to traditional pre-paid channels, the internet would take the win.
“Pay $80 HKD for a few channels or $200 HKD for the entire world?” said my grandfather. The answer is pretty obvious. When he visits Hong Kong, he feels as if the free local channels like RTHK or TVB are dominated by Asian countries i.e. China and Taiwan. As a Filipino, it is difficult to find a media outlet that is tailored to his needs.
After his long rant about how the he wishes he had the internet back in his day, he ended the conversation with smile saying, “This is a nice era to live in for technology.”
The Erryl Classicz 