Television Times

For the first two-thirds of my life, television was ever-present. Childhood and teenage years were dominated by it. When there were only two or three (from 1964) or even four channels (from 1982) to choose from, television created a shared sense of national identity. We all watched the same programmes and discussed them avidly in the playground the next morning. It created a sense of community unique in history; never before or since have societies bonded over the shared experience of watching the artistic endeavours. Thunderbirds, Dr Who, Top of the Pops, Tomorrow's World - this is what we grew up with, and it shaped our worldview and identities. If, like me, you grew up in Britain in the 1970s, the big debate at Christmas was whether to watch the Morecambe and Wise Christmas Special on ITV or the Two Ronnies Christmas Special on BBC1.

Then along came multichannel TV, first through cable, then digitally via satellite. It was around this time that I stopped watching TV as a regular pastime. The choice became mind-boggling, but as Bruce Springsteen sang, there were "57 Channels and Nothing On." He wrote that song in 1992; by 1997 I was in Poland publishing a TV guide that covered the outpourings of so many channels that I cannot remember the exact number. Certainly several hundred including all the satellite digital platforms. By now, the social effect that TV had during its golden age was fading fast. Rolling 24-hour news channels would soon run out of news and so start creating fake outrage which soon became news in its own right. Third- and fourth-rate channels, stuffed with low-budget shows and repeats. Viewers would sideline themselves into their favourite screen pursuits - sports, news, serials, chat, history, shopping.

And so at work the next morning, the conversation was no longer about what everyone had watched the night before; each individual is likely to have watched something else. Britain held out with nation-binding standards such as Great British Bake-Off or Strictly Come Dancing that could still draw multi-million audiences and be discussed socially - I can't say I've seen nor discussed either though. 

In February 2005, an American start-up came along to offer something quite new - a place where you could upload your video content and the world could watch it. Today, nearly 17 years on, YouTube is the second-most visited website on earth after Google Search, with more than one billion visits each month. Within a few years of its launch, YouTube was a copyright-lawyer's battleground with content appearing and disappearing; these days with a business model that's far broader than just serving out ads, it works well. 

The days of having a TV guide and arranging your free time around what is being shown at a given time is over. Watch what you want, when you want. But it also means does mean that the shared communion, the mass participation in a televisual event that would draw together a quarter or a third of a nation is over. Video on demand, Netflix and other brands, will be marginalising TV much like TV slowly turned regular cinema-going into a niche activity from the 1950s onward.

This summer, fed up of being unable to listen to more than one song before an ad popped up to annoy me, I signed up for YouTube Premium (36 złotys a month, about £6.75). I consider this money well spent; YouTube now works much better for me.

So what do I watch on YouTube? Mostly non-fiction. A lot of science - sub-atomic physics, quantum mechanics, cosmology, consciousness. Royal Institution lectures, PBS Space Time, Event Horizon and others, getting my science up to speed. A great favourite of mine has become Closer to Truth with Robert Lawrence Kuhn, which brings the science together with one man's search for God in all this. Over the years, Closer to Truth has brought out hundreds of excellent interviews with scientists, philosophers and theologians; although Robert Lawrence Kuhn's might be no closer to truth in his own personal journey, these discussions are extremely worth listening to. Also, Lex Fridman's thought-provoking dialogues with top thinkers from AI, science and philosophy. Thanks to my son, I've become a subscriber and habitual viewer of Jago Hazzard's short videos about London's railway history. And finally, for bringing together spirituality, science and more than a bit of UFOlogy - Project Unity.

This time last year:
New asphalt for Jeziorki - or Dawidy?

This time four years ago:
What did you do in the First World Cyber-War?

This time five years ago:
Solstice sunset, Gogolińska

This time ten years ago
Extreme fixie

This time 12 years ago:
Poland's worst railway station

This time 13 years ago:
Last Christmas before the Recession?