Comment by ssl-3
5 days ago
I mean: I can be very happy just plugging my laptop into the TV and using mplayer from the command line. That works great for me.
But sometimes, other people (often referred to as "family" and/or "friends") come by and hang out. A TV-centric interface driven by a simple remote is more familiar and easier for them to understand.
(And frankly, I don't want anyone but me futzing around with my laptop at all, ever.)
My wife is not super tech savy but has no problem plugging an hdmi cable and learned the function key to switch monitors modes. "friends" somehow never asked for it as there is no visible screen in my living room and those spending some nights on the couch usually bring their own laptop or phone and whatch whatever they want anyway.
Having said that we are not the typical household with TV turned on 12h a day. We have a screenless kitchen+dinning space separated from the living room. I know it is less popular these days but we prefer it that way, especially when cooking stuff with powerful smell, and it allows us to enjoy having a meal and having a conversation without distraction. Cooking/eating alone we might individually decide to watch something on our phone/tablet/laptop but the unwritten rule is to turn it off when it becomes a family moment. In the living room we are using a video projector instead of a TV so deciding to watch a movie or a TV show is more an active decision to gather together, bring something to eat and drink, turn off the light and watch a specific thing we all agreed on. I might be the only one occasionally turning it on in the evening to play a video game, mostly in the winter when days are short. While we ocasionally have a binge watching couple of days this is a rare occurence and turning on the video projector is typically not even a weekly event. For instance this month I think we only turned it on twice. We never really have moments when someone is alone zapping randomly through channels.
I don't really understand how some people can get bored enough to decide to sit in front of a screen and watch "random" stuff when I barely have time for all my hobbies. For instance when I am watching sports it is usually on replay while I am doing house chores so it is usually on a tablet or laptop in whichever room I happen to be. I will never decide to put aside a hobby or sport I can enjoy myself and watch other people — regardless if they are professional and better at said sport — do it and enjoy it themselves instead of me. I know I used to do that when I was a teenager but this is now a foreign concept to me.
YMMV, it works and in our case bring us a better quality of life: better sleep/rest, more time for conversation with my daughters, more active and enjoyable sexual life with my current partner than with previous ones who were glued to a TV every evening, more time for hobbies and gratification of making stuff ourselves.