Can you live without 'The Box'?

Television, TV, Telly, The Box, Tube, whatever you call it, it is undeniably a part of most people's lives. Whether you watch TV shows or just use the television to stream Netflix movies or Youtube videos some people can not live without it.

I was talking to a guy the other day who is about to be transferred by his company in Tokyo to his company's subsidiary in Hanoi, Vietnam. When I was talking to him he had just come from Hanoi the day before where he had got to meet his new colleagues and see where he was going to work and also to find a place to live while he is seconded to Vietnam.

I asked him about the hotel that he stayed in and he said that it was nice and comfortable and the building that he will be working in is very nice too but the Japanese language is not widely spoken in that building as it was constructed by a Korean company and there is still a heavy Korean presence in that area.

The conversation got to the theme of television. He seemed to be quite worried as there was only one Japanese channel at the hotel and that was NHK World which is predominately an English channel anyway.

This conversation got me thinking, why is it when we go to a country that doesn't speak your native language that we get worried about what is on television? Has it become such a dominant part of our lives that we can't live without it?

The answer to that is "well yes, maybe."

With internet we can basically watch anything we want and keep up to date with all of our favourite shows even on Youtube or with a VPN connection.

Maybe the older people find that difficult. The idea of watching 'TV' on your computer is not the most popular among older people and I'm saying people over 50 years old.

Also one other idea is that television is a connection to home. My first few years in Japan I had satellite/cable television. I as able to watch all the rugby matches and I felt like I was at home. I would talk to my father at half time and we would speculate what was going to happen. Of course now, we have Facebook, texting etc. That has become easier.

What I can say is that it is nice to have television but if you want to get ahead then you might need to back off from that piece of home apparatus and read a book or even write a blog.

Hey! That sounds like a great idea. I might try that. Now, what am I going to blog about? Any ideas?