Television started a revolution of being able to see what everyone is doing regardless of where they are. So, what is television?
Tel·e·vi·sion is a system for transmitting visual images and sounds that are reproduced on screens, chiefly used to broadcast programs for entertainment, information, and education; a device that receives television signals and reproduces them on a screen. The etymology of the word has a mixed Latin and Greek origin, meaning "far sight": Greek tele, far, and Latin visio, sight. Sounds simple enough doesn't it? Not!
I often wonder what my parents and grandparents thought of this newfangled device that brought into their living rooms the actual people they'd been listening to for years over the radio. I don't remember a time when we didn't have a television set although I do remember the video going out on our set once which didn't seem to bother our parents but drove us kids to distraction. We weren't used to just listening. We grew up in the visual age.
Those of you who are around my age will remember the cartoon we grew up watching that had many innovations that seemed far out and weird but have since come true. I'm still waiting for Rosie the Robot maid to come to clean my house.
The "Jetsons" cartoon was set in the year 2062. It seemed like a hundred years away when it debuted. Being the only cartoon to air in primetime at that time, I don't know too many people my age who would have missed a single episode.
The "Jetsons" brought us the modern-day equivalent of FaceTime and Zoom, the Apple watch, cell phones (sort of), treadmills in the home, microwave ovens, jet backpacks, computers, and 3-D printers, just to name a few. Some things on the show the "Jetsons" had that I wish we had now are flying cars, instantaneous people movers, Rosie the Robot maid (not just the Roomba), and full meals that appear with the touch of a button. Oh, well. One can dream can't one?
I do have the Apple watch, a cell phone, a video doorbell, etc., and I find the more of these fancy-smancy devices I acquire, the more frustrated I become. I'm not a big technonerd. When I set up a device, be it the aforementioned conveniences or a blu-ray player, whatever, I expect it to work FOREVER. Please don't ask me to set it up again. I barely managed when it was new.
We invested in a home security system a few years ago that came with eight cameras to be strategically placed around the outside of our house. It also came with a video monitor. I think the cameras might have worked properly for about a year. I spent several minutes (it felt like hours) on hold with customer (no) service where the fellow with a heavy foreign accent (not Okie) on the other end of the line informed me I'd need to reprogram each and every camera. AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!
David hauled in one after the other while the patient fellow on the other end of the line walked me through what to do. Approximately 30 hours later, I got them all working. Proud of myself, I spent days viewing the images of our dogs frolicking, David working in the yard or birds flying about. That was it. We paid an obscene amount of money to watch ourselves.
This euphoria lasted about another year before, you guessed it, the cameras when down again only this time I never did get anyone to answer the phone so now we have a system that's still using up Internet but giving nothing in return.
But I digress.
I love the idea of a video chat but, let's face it, none of us wants to chat with the other person looking like a wet dog that got drug through the cat door. This is where Jane Jetson had the right idea. We don't have hair and makeup machines to make us instantly beautiful (oh, but were that possible) like she did but Jane did have something else – a handheld mask she would hold up before she answered the phone. I'm still looking for one of those but not with my picture on it.
I can't decide whose face I'd prefer on my mask. Should it be a beautiful movie star that the younger generation would know or should I go with one of the big stars from when I was growing up? Charlize Theron? Doris Day? Marilyn Monroe? Melissa McCarthy? She'd probably be closer to my looks (size). Or maybe Rock Hudson? Hey, who says it has to be a woman? If the caller is someone I don't know, that'd really throw them off the trail.
Ah, technology, ya gotta love it. NOT.