[whiplash451]

Early usage of TVs consisted in living the tv set turned on constantly, which in the hindsight was insane. With time, we learned to « master » the technology that was put in our hands. Much along the lines of what this article points out.

[buildsjets]

The voice of inexperience with early TV sets is loud here. You would never do that with early sets, as the damn vacuum tubes would burn out very quickly, then Dad would get mad, take the back off the set, take ALL the tubes out, cart them down to the drugstore, use their tester to find the burned out tube, and buy a replacement. Dad, being a busy man, would not appreciate doing this very often, and so tightly controlled our use.

We didn’t get our first color + solid-state set (a huge marketing term back then) until 1978. That was probably about 5 years later than typical. It was a Zenith Space Command, also our first with a remote control. It used no batteries, pressing a button struck a metal tuning fork set for an “ultrasonic” frequency that a microphone in the set listened for. I quoted “ultrasonic”, because as a child I could definitely hear it.

[whiplash451]

My bad, I was looking at the 80's when I said early. You have a point!

[dredmorbius]

There are still people who do leave the television on constantly.

Far worse, there are many, many, many public spaces --- waiting rooms, bars, restaurants, cafes --- in which televisions are ominipresent and, again, always on.

This has become far worse, rather than better, with thinner and cheaper displays.

[dopidopHN]

That's considerably more prevalent in the US. I choose my bar and restaurants by the abscence of large screens. ( Not only obviousely but if it can be avoided, I do )