My television is alive and well. Well, perhaps that’s an exaggeration seeing as I haven’t had cable in almost 4 years thanks to being in college and thanks to the insane cost of cable. There’s no way I’m going to ask my parents to pay an extra hundred a month so I can get my fill of SpongeBob and The Walking Dead when I can easily stream these shows online for free or wait a year for my favorite series to become available on my ex-boyfriend’s Netflix account.

But I still do not retract my statement that my television is alive and well. I love TV. My earliest memories consist of me laying on a black leather couch that my parents bought in the ’80s. I’m sucking on a bottle full of milk and watching the Rugrats in my underwear. Good times–but twenty years later, whenever I go home during holidays, there I am again: I’m in my underwear watching ’90s reruns and sipping on a cold drink. I doubt ever seeing this kind of lifestyle, this kind of media ever going out of style.

There’s something very human, very comforting about watching television. I feel more connected to the universe. I’m comforted by the fact that there are thousands of other Americans sharing the same show with me. I’m comforted that I’m not alone, that I’m not the only one rolling my eyes at a lame commercial. Or that I’m not the only one fascinated by the way Rick Grimes says “CORAL”‘s name when a new episode of The Walking Dead airs.

It’s the same with the radio. There’s something special about listening to a song with others. It’s a communal feeling that I’m not sure if others share. I like knowing that a shared tv show, commercial, or song connects me to the rest of the world whereas choosing a song on my ipod or selecting a show on Netflix makes me feel more detached. Sure, I’m in charge of what I get to watch or listen to, and that’s an awesome perk, but I lose that sense of connection that cable and radio offers.

On that note, I feel like Netflix is definitely the way of the future. It’s cheap. It’s easy. It offers the audience control–something that cable lacks. There are no commercials. I can pause, rewind, or fastforward any time that I want. The same goes for web series–something I have never really found an interest in.

I personally can’t stand the poor quality of web series. I can’t watch bad acting, I can’t listen to bad writing, I can’t watch bad production and directing. I understand that web series offer something that TV has yet to give its audience. Web series offer minorities a place and a voice. As Professor Russworm states in her article about web series:

“Internet ‘television’ offers something network or cable programming never has: hundreds, if not thousands, of on-demand amateur and professional content…are created by or star black people… A micro-niche model best describes how to think about the audiences for the current online content, meaning it is highly probable that a given viewer will find something in the multitude relatable and entertaining enough.”

Now that I reflect on it, I have definitely, and on several occasions turned to YouTube to watch videos created by people who are like me–Asians, minorities, women. I have often turned to YouTube to watch Asian comedians describe what it’s like to be an Asian American–something that TV or Netflix has never offered me insight on.

All in all, I don’t think television is a dead medium. I will always have a desire for optimum quality and for the strange connection I feel to the rest of the world when I watch it. At the same time, I think that web series definitely have a bright future. I think it opens up mainstream entertainment to minorities and niches. I think both mediums have and will continue to have a place in our lives, and I’d be incredibly sorry to see either medium fade away with time.