Pastimes Over Time

I often think about how voraciously I read during my school years. I didn't track numbers, but I'd often read a book in a day, and must have read hundreds of books every year through the end of high school. People often commented that I read beyond my age; I read The Hobbit around age seven, and The Lord of the Rings around age ten. (In both cases, I didn't read the books until after seeing an animated version on TV.) My mother still remembers vividly that I chose to read The Iliad and The Odyessy when I was twelve or so. I always loved sff and as far as I was concerned, all the magic and gods and demigods made these books fantasy. 

My reading habit more-or-less broke in college. There were a few periods where I'd get back into reading for a while, most often reading a particular author until I ran out of books by them, and then returning to my usual "not reading much" state. I feel like I've read fewer books in the last 30 years than I did during any one year from ages 7-17. That's probably not literally true, but I suspect it's close.

But I had another entertainment habit as a kid that broke when I went to college, and I never think about that one: television. As voracious as I was for books, I was at least as passionate about TV, if not more so. A standard childhood punishment for misbehavior was "no TV for a week." My parents never prohibited me from reading books; I think this was in part because reading was 'good for you' in a way that TV wasn't, but perhaps also because I felt the loss of TV more keenly. I definitely couldn't replace it with reading books.

I remember a news story about a wristwatch TV and being thrilled at the idea of TV that I could carry with me and watch wherever I went.

My childhood self might be appalled by how little I read now, but she would be flabbergasted by my near-total lack of interest in videos. With trivial effort, I could watch most any movie or show made in the last 20+ years (not to mention many much older). And yet I don't. I carry a device everywhere that I could use to watch whatever video I want. 

And I don't.

I watch new episodes of "Last Week Tonight" (the Youtube versions) with some regularity. I've watched some Casual Geographic videos. If a friend on social media links to a short video -- a few minutes or less -- I'll watch it. I wanted to watch some Helluva Boss episodes but I couldn't figure out how to find the episodes in order so I could see where I'd left off, and gave up without watching any. If I'm with friends or relatives and they want to watch something, I'll usually watch whatever it is with them.

But otherwise, left to my own devices, I do not watch movies or videos. 

The key difference between reading and watching is that I miss reading but I've always felt like watching videos wasn't worth the time.

I don't know why, exactly, videos do not feel worth the time. The one entertainment constant from childhood to present has been games: I've never stopped gaming, though the games vary. I spent a lot of time on arcade and computer games as a kid; nowadays I spend a lot of time playing Time Princess (mobile interactive fiction game but with a bunch of dailies and puzzle game options that I spend time on) and Race for the Galaxy (a tabletop board game that I play online in random-match games). Most of day goes to those plus social media, and the random blog posts and articles I stumble onto from social media. Do I think this is a better use of time than watching movies or shows? No. I enjoy my daily activities and consider that reason enough to do them. But there's no reason I couldn't spend more time watching videos and less time on social media or games. I just don't.

I'm moving to live with my parents, who always have one or both TVs on. My friends in the area love watching videos and movies. So I'll be watching more videos and movies soon anyway; I don't need to make a special effort to do so. 

I have made a special effort to get back to reading; I've put it down as an activity to do daily and I'm sticking with that, even if it's only a few pages each day. I've read four novels, three graphic novels, and one int-fic story so far this year: more than I usually manage in the first quarter of the year. 

But I seldom think about how little I watch shows compared to my child-self, who spent several hours every day glued to the TV. It's striking to think about how this changed. I find commercial television unbearable now and don't know how I put up with it 40 years ago. The internet replaced all my entertainment habits, really. It's just less noticeable with the computer games because I still play computer games: they're just online now. In a sense, I still do a lot of reading, but it's also online now: articles, blog posts, and social media. Video is the habit that was hardest hit, because I haven't adopted any internet-based video habits. Yes, I'll watch short-form videos, but I don't seek them out. I might watch an hour of videos a week, if you added them all together.

It's an interesting point.