A Presentation on…

How my parents TV viewing habits, music

consumption and dealings with technology
have changed!

Christ ie Lowe
What did they watch…
 Magpie – ITV’s version of Blue Peter
 Mr Benn
 The Flintstones
 Bill and Ben
 Trumpton
 Happy Days
 Andy Pandy
 Blue Peter
 Playschool
 Rainbow
 Bagpuss
 Rhubarb and Custard
Where they watched it and
who with….
 At home
 Was a family thing to watch TV in the past
so watched TV with the family. i.e. Parents
and brothers/sisters
 There was one TV in the house in the living
room. When they reached about 16 or 17
years old, they were allowed a black and
white TV in their bedroom. There was only
3 channels available and there was a big
round aerial on top of the TV.
How much they used
VCR’s…
 They got the VCR after the TV and wasn’t
the most appealing thing to use
 Used about once a week, was only used
because it was there
 More a fad than a common thing to use
 They had VHS, not Betamax!
Do they have Sky/Sky+…
 Used to have it in our household in 1997
 Had the full package which was quite
expensive
 Cancelled it after a year because they were
not satisfied with it – even though there
were millions of channels, there was
nothing on and most of it was repeated
Do they watch iPlayer/4oD?
 Mum – Never uses the services avaliable
online. Don’t really appeal to her.
 Dad – Occasionally watches it to watch a
programme he likes or has missed.
How have computers changed
their lives?
 It’s a more paperless society nowadays with the
use of computers. Things are more faster than
before and there is a smaller but bigger storage
space as everything can be stored on the hard
drive rather than paper.
 Communication is much better and faster as we
can talk to friends who live on the other side of
the world through Facebook or email.
How have computers changed
their lives? (Continued…)
 Both my parents use computers all the
time at work so without them, their job
would be a lot harder.
 They also communicate through email
which helps them stay in touch with
some friends and also helps them when
at work to contact people.

How have mobiles changed
their lives?
 Much better now mobiles are in their lives!
 They can now be in contact with their children
whenever they want to see where they are etc
 They text more than phone
 Again, things are much faster now mobiles are
around. When they went on holiday when they
were younger, to ring home they had to go to the
main centre where there were rows of phone
boxes and just keep trying to get through to home
because it was so busy on the phone lines.
Nowadays, you can just use your mobile phone to
ring home and talk all day if you wanted to!
 Used to have to use phone cards when on holiday to
ring home which were quite expensive.
How have mobiles changed
their lives? (Continued…)
 However, there is a negative point to
mobiles as my dad mentioned…
 He said that when you have your mobile and
it rings all the time, its drives you mad and
gets on your nerves… but when you don’t
have it, you feel as though something is
missing!
What was home/work life like
before the “online age”?
 The family time at home is not much
different now to what is used to be like.
 One big change for my parents is shopping.
My mum said that she used to order her
clothes shopping from the
Freemanscatalogue. To place her order,
she either phoned it in or sent it by post.
Nowadays, she shops online for her clothes
which she says is much easier and more
effective.
What’s made their life easier
or harder?
 Life has definitely got easier for both of my
parents with the use of internet and
mobiles.
 One drawback which my dad mentioned was
about the internet. He said that he doesn’t
agree with the amount of personal
information which can be given away on
websites such as Facebook. This info being
mobile numbers, addresses etc. He also
doesn’t like what young children can be
exposed to on the internet either as this
can be dangerous.
What do they think about
having more choice in TV etc?
 Both my parents agreed with each other
when I asked them this question…
 They both said that TV is more rubbish than
before, they have to flick through channels
every night to find something to watch
that they like. There is never ever anything
on!!
