The task was to think about an activity and (how it) can be amended with the help of digital technology.
Let's take watching television, an everyday activity.
Television in Estonia has been available since the year 1955, but it made its way to public already in 1928. The first television sets became available in the UK, US, and Soviet Union. In 1956 first television sets could be bought in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia.
TV transmission was first black and white, but now it is colourful, digital and can be easily viewed from any corner of the world. Estonia got its colourful picture inside the TV set already in 1975, but the world could view colourful images already in 1940.
I was born in the 1980's and as far as I can remember, we have always had a television set, a colourful one, and we fought over using rights of the TV with my two brothers. Television watching was possible only through one TV set and it was controlled manually, you had to stand up, go to the television set and push or turn the buttons.
The 1990's became the turning point in our family, where the remote control came and also virtual console games could be played through the television screen with the help of remote control joysticks and guns. Super Mario was my personal favourite.
When I first started to learn about the computers in 1996, it was not so thrilling with computers having only DOS systems and graphics were minimal, but in 1998 when our family got its first personal computer, my world changed - I got hooked with the "thing", later accompanied with Internet, and my interest in digital technology rose.
Nowadays these two gadgets can easily be mixed, since one can view computer images through a TV screen or vice versa, digital technology has helped us a lot. You do not necessarily have to have a TV set at home to view television.
I would describe my TV viewing habits then and now:
In the 1980s when I wanted to watch TV, I turned it on manually and sat on the couch watching children's programmes. If necessary, I stood up from the couch and turned up the volume or changed the channel manually. In the next decade it was possible to watch satellite TV in our family, and channels like MTV, VIVA and the like became popular for me. I also liked Cartoon Network. In the middle of the decade it was possible to change channels with a remote control without standing up. Occasionally there were mishaps in transmission.
The 2000s did not bring much change until the impossible happened - my TV set fell down and I lost the possibility of watching TV. I chose another alternative and downloaded illegaly all the serials that I was watching at that time and spent night hours watching them. When the hard disc broke, I did not care and am not a fan of TV anymore.
But there are some films and shows I enjoy watching via my computer, which has different TV archives and can be watched legally. Since television became digital on the 1st of July in 2010 in Estonia, the official Estonian channels can be viewed through your computer screen. If you cannot watch your favourite shows it is easier to record them and watch later straight from your computer. No need for a TV set anymore (if you are comfortable without one). But still, TV watching is a lot different - there are digital television boxes which allow you to watch different channels all over the world. There are usually two remotes on people's couches - one for the TV set, another for the digibox. When you push the buttons, you can choose between channels, read teletext and information about the programmes, and much much more.
I think TV history has changed throughout the years and will become even better. For example controlling the channels with your mind (a built-in chip that controls your emotions and thoughts) and projecting them onto your wall, no need of many gadgets at all. I believe that this is a very utopian perspective of things, but I think that watching TV will become even simpler than it is now.
Literature:
History of Estonian Television
Television, wikipedia article
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