Television has undergone several technological evolutions since it was first invented in 1926, and many devices have taken over its role in modern times. However, television still plays an important role in our homes and society, and is expected to do so in the future with technological advances.
Television was invented by a British inventor named John Logie Baird, who began working on it in 1922 and successfully tested it for the first time in 1926. The name television is a combination of the Greek words tele, meaning far, and vision, meaning to see. As this etymology suggests, a television is a machine that allows you to receive video from somewhere. Nowadays, we usually refer to a television as a machine that can receive a program from a station.
Televisions were first created as mechanical televisions that transmitted video through the movement of a disk. Mechanical televisions required constant rotation of the parts of the television set while watching, and they were limited in terms of picture quality. Because of these problems, mechanical televisions were not widely used. This was followed by electronic televisions using brown tubes, which we’ve been using until recently. It improved on the problems of the previous mechanical televisions, and it quickly overtook them and became widespread. The next evolution of television was from black and white to color in the 1950s. This allowed television to further stimulate our eyes by showing us a wide range of colors.
From this point on, television became more than just a video delivery device; it became an important part of the home. Families came together to watch programs and share social and cultural experiences, which played an important role in building family bonds and fostering a sense of community. Television became more than just an appliance, it became an important part of family culture.
Nowadays, we don’t see brown tube televisions anymore. Traditional brown-tube televisions suffer from the problem that the larger the screen, the thicker it gets and the lower the picture quality. In the 1990s, flat-panel display televisions with thinner screens and better image quality began to appear. In recent years, television has also begun to change from analog to digital, as digital systems, which are much better than the analog systems used to receive television, have been widely used internationally. In Korea, analog broadcasting will soon be completely discontinued, and only digital television broadcasts will be available.
Television can be categorized into two main functions: information delivery and entertainment. A typical example of television’s information delivery function is news and current affairs programs. We can learn about what is happening in the world by watching the news, and we can organize our thoughts by listening to the thoughts of people from all walks of life on current events. These programs are also how we learn about issues that are of great social importance and shape public opinion. The simplest example of this is when a TV program raises money for disaster victims, many people are inspired to help, and a lot of money is raised.
The second function of television is to entertain. The most typical examples of television programs are dramas, cartoons, movies, and entertainment programs. We gather as a family in the evening to watch dramas and have fun. On weekend evenings, we watch entertainment programs or comedy programs and laugh together. Children laugh at cartoon movies on television and forget about the stresses and annoyances of the day. By giving people fun and laughter, television plays an important role in making life a little better.
Television has also played an educational role. By providing learning content through educational broadcasts and imparting knowledge and information to viewers through documentary programs, television has also been used as a learning tool in the home. Television has become more than just entertainment; it has become an important medium for education and information.
Until recently, television was the most powerful mass medium and had the power of a dictator. But recently, its place has been very much under threat. In the past, there were no devices that could replace the functions of the television, so viewers had to sit in front of the television during programming hours to watch soap operas, news, and other programs. Television was necessary to hear what was going on in the world and to watch entertainment programs, and because television could only air pre-made programs and live broadcasts were extremely limited, it was easy to control information. Television was characterized as a means of controlling the masses because only the information that powerful people wanted to hear could be delivered. However, with the proliferation of computers and the internet, television has lost much of its ability to convey information. Computers and the Internet provide much more information in real time. Computers and the internet are more free from censorship than traditional media.
Recent advances in technology have also made it possible to watch TV shows on your cell phone or live TV shows on your computer. The unique function of the television – delivering video – has been largely replaced by other devices, so what was considered a necessity in the 1990s is no longer so. Younger generations are getting computers before TVs. In addition, the technological advances of traditional televisions have created a lot of content that can be enjoyed on a computer or smartphone. The place of the traditional television has become much smaller.
However, as I said at the beginning, a television is “a machine that allows you to receive video from somewhere.” Then, since computers and cell phones can also receive transmitted video, it is questionable whether they can be called televisions. In conclusion, we can say that they are devices that act as televisions, but they are not televisions. They are not televisions because their main purpose is not to receive radio waves and watch videos. However, if you want to, you can put on a program or watch a video by receiving radio waves from a station in a certain way, so you can say that it is a television.
As the French philosopher Jean Baudrillard said, “In the modern world, the boundaries between the original and the copy, between reality and virtual reality, become blurred and indistinguishable.” Computers and cell phones, which are copies of traditional televisions and their functions, have blurred the boundaries with televisions. As a result, television as we know it has become much less important.
As they say, crisis is opportunity, and television is starting to change. Electronics companies began to develop new televisions that were different from traditional televisions and created what we now call 3D TVs, smart TVs, and transparent TVs. 3D TVs introduced a technology called stereoscopic video to television programs that is difficult to see on other devices. Smart TVs have emerged as a new type of TV with basic Internet access and similar functions to PCs and smartphones. In particular, smart TVs are designed to be used in various ways, such as installing and utilizing various applications like a smartphone, using social networking services on a computer, watching videos, and searching for information. Transparent TVs are said to have overcome the limitations of existing TVs by successfully researching and developing transparent display technology. When turned off, you can see through the screen as if it were transparent glass, creating a sense of openness and harmony with the surrounding interior.
In the 2000s, televisions took over the functions that cell phones and computers had taken over. Despite this transformation, 3D TVs and smart TVs are still incomplete in terms of content and technology. Transparent TVs are very expensive. 3D TVs require special glasses, and watching them for long periods of time can cause eye strain and dizziness. Smart TVs still need more content development. Transparent TVs are not yet commercially viable due to their high cost. However, these problems are an inevitable part of the introduction of any new technology. They will be resolved over time and with the development of the technology.
As you can see, modern society is becoming increasingly technologically advanced and the lines between devices are blurring, so televisions will play many roles as we move into the future. The future of TV will be technological, with large, portable, easy-to-install TVs, fully 3D TVs, holographic TVs, and more. Also, TV used to be a way for viewers to unconditionally watch and accept programs. But now we’ll see TVs that allow you to look up questions and interact with them. Even if portable and easy-to-use devices are favored, it is estimated that people will spend a lot of time at home, so the home TV will not disappear. The delivery of video, which is what television has done since its inception, will always be its primary raison d’être.
In the end, television will continue to evolve, evolving into different technologies and forms, but still playing an important role in our daily lives.
