“Mad Men is the best show in the world.”
– Maura Fennelly
Question almost any student at MHS and they’ll give an impassioned response as to what their favorite TV show is. In a world where computers and iPhones are taking over, there is a growing concern that TV doesn’t hold the same wonder that it used to. I’d disagree with that sentiment. In fact, I would say that computers and iPhones are actually increasing the popularity of television.
On Tuesday, March 19th, ABC Family aired the season finale of Pretty Little Liars, the hugely popular show based on a book series by Sara Shepard. During the finale, there were almost 1.6 million tweets about the show. My own twitter feed was filled with girls (and sometimes guys) tweeting live updates as the plot was moving along. In past seasons even I have participated in this phenomenon. The feeling of watching the show with hundreds of other people and being the first to tweet about the latest plot twist is addictive.
With regard to computers, I only have one word: Netflix. Netflix is the service that people pay only $8 a month for to receive a plethora of shows and movies. Many teenage girls and guys now watch Netflix on their computers. Netflix enables you to watch season upon season of TV show with no commercials, legally. If you’ve never seen a certain show before, you can watch multiple seasons on Netflix and catch up to watch new episodes on TV. Personally, I’ve watched five seasons of Gossip Girl on Netflix just in time to watch the final season on TV. I watched three seasons of The Vampire Diaries and can now watch the fourth season live.
These shows, and more, are increasing in popularity as teenagers live tweet them and get addicted on Netflix. For instance, The Walking Dead and Workaholics have become immensely popular just in the last few months, and I would say that Twitter is partly responsible for that. You see a bunch of people watching and tweeting about it and that draws interest.
Most Americans probably aren’t receiving their news from TV anymore, which I will concede. However, Twitter and computers are probably heightening the popularity of cable shows.
Speaking of which, I think Vampire Diaries is on tonight.