Just part of the furniture
Media Guardian: Television 'a wallpaper medium'
There was a time when watching television was a rarity - a family event. I can still remember the excitement when my parents brought back their very first colour TV in the early 1980s. We marvelled at the colour picture - we got really excited as we messed around and viewed the four channels. Well three of us did - my mum went off into the over room to watch the news on the old black and white set.
Ten years later there were four TVs in the house. It had arrived and was just standard.
To last year - ten more years on and in our old flat my other half would put The Hits or TMF on as she worked on the computer. It was just there to fill the silence of the rest of the room. In our new home, she doesn't do that any more - the computer is in another room now.
Sat in the office at work, I can see a large number of televisions pumping out a choice from hundreds of channels. When turned on, the sound is usually down and they silently fill the room with a variety of moving images. The news. Cartoons. Australian soap operas.
The humble, ubiquitous television. Every where we go. Offices, homes, buses, planes, trains. It can be big or it can fit in a pocket. Every where we go. All conquering, all too common, just part of the decor...
As I type this, I am sat next to a television - right next to me in fact. Funnily enough, it's tuned to a radio station.
