Back to the Future

My speech classes are currently studying a chapter about radio and television. Today we talked about the history of mass media and the future of television.

I forgot that our book was published in 1994, and I always forget this until we get into the chapter and I'm lecturing and we get to some information that is laughably outdated.

Our book does not talk about the internet at all, which is of course a huuuuge media outlet and information source; shoot, most of my students don't know how to do research without a computer. And I myself, when I am too lazy to get up and walk to the bookcase, just look up words on Dictionary.com.

The book claims that radio is more popular than ever before, and we agreed that this is probably no longer true, since most people have mp3 players, or cd players, or AT LEAST cassette players, so they can choose their own music. I personally almost can't listen to music in the car anymore; I like to listen to books, when possible, or talk radio or NPR or something that makes me feel like I'm not losing brain cells. (nerd)

"In recent years cable television ..." the book says. And we all laughed at the idea of cable being relatively new. I laughed, but I also thought, "Gee, I remember that," and tried not to feel ancient.

I can't wait until we get to the part about talking pictures and the innovative Commodore 486.