Though pre-DVR TV and especially a household too poor for cable the television was... a bit less continuously interesting. Having even a VCR was just amazing and that was a royal pain meaning you really had to pick and choose what to record. Most of the time you didn't even have anything you wanted to watch that happened to be playing right then. Even when you did want to watch, good chance it is a rerun and you only half paid attention if you bothered at all.

The on-demand nature of it and the volume of it are really what makes it just constant.

i grew up in the 80s, i was a latchkey kid and i had a tv in my room and in the living room. but there were no screens to hand to me while driving, shopping, attending social or family functions. if i was bored somewhere, my options were to engage, explore, observe, read, or draw.

i think there is something fundamentally different about the relationship cultivated between small people and small, ever - present screens than the large stationary box we had at home.