My point here isn't rocket science. It's just that sometimes things feel more real when they happen in your own life.
Like most parents we limit our son's tele watching, if only to ensure his brains don't run out of his ears. But being in Year 7 at school, he now has his own laptap. And recently, he has taken to firing this up and watching things on iPlayer. Not to be sneaky or anything - he's quite upfront about it. In fact, it simply doesn't seem to occur to him that he's breaking house rules.
So whereas tele used to mean both the hardware of the tech and software of the content, it appears that, for him, watching tele now just means the box in the corner. Whilst watching My Family (I know, tell me about it!) on the laptap means something else entirely.
So it looks like we will have to change the rules.
But what this does show is that even if the role (even the room) remains the same, content and channel (of which online is just another delivery 'hardware') have been decoupled, and watching tele is only watching tele if it's on the TV (at least for 12 year old boys).
