Should we bury our old friend the TV?

If you said yes, I can prove you very wrong. Some people might say that the Internet is the most popular resource people go to for information. Although this might be true, studies from a recent survey show differently.

According to a February 2014 report from Kantar, 2.06 billion people worldwide watched the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics on their TV, while just 310 million worldwide watched digitally. Even though we are in an age where we’re all glued to our phones, isn’t it amazing that people would rather gather around the TV to see what’s going on in the world? I think so; it may have something to do with actually being able to witness the emotion of the athletes when they win.

Being a part of legendary moments that will live on in a country’s history for years to come can make a person feel like they are part of something much greater than just sitting around a TV! That’s what I think TV does – it makes you feel something when you watch it.

I pose a simple question to everyone out there reading this: Where were you when Jonathon Toews and Marie-Philip Poulin scored the game-winning goals for Team Canada? Most likely, we were all gathered around a TV, whether you were at a bar, a school, at work or even at home with friends drinking a couple of beers and screaming your heads off feeling extremely proud of your Canadian roots.

No one is going to watch something alone if they have the choice. Chances are that you want to be surrounded by people because it’s tradition, and the whole atmosphere of the games is what drives people closer to others who share the same culture.

Further research from the study shows that 52% of people found information or watched the games online. The newspaper was last with a staggering 17%. Although a significant amount of people received their information through the Internet, TV proved to be the dominating medium overall throughout the games. What can we learn from this article? It’s that TV is still very much alive in a world where we think we are powered by our mobile devices and computers.

Patricia Ferreira, Raven5 Ltd, Oakville, Ontario, February 2014.

 

 

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