The future of television is a topic that could be taken in a million different directions. I never thought that growing up with my grandparents still owning a television with a knob to change the channel would develop into a conversation about whether televisions will live on or become a thing of the past. I was born in 1994 and grew up on Nickelodeon and Disney Channel, the classic Disney Channel movies and shows such as Rocket Power, Hey Arnold and Spongebob of course. To think that I would wait every night until 7:30 to watch an episode of Rocket Power before bed is crazy considering that I could pull up any show in the world while simultaneously writing this blog post. The advances in technology in just my 22 years of life are mind blowing. I can log into Netflix, HBO Go, Amazon Prime or Hulu and essentially have every television show at my fingertips. I can google a movie title and have it streaming from my laptop or even my phone in a matter of minutes. I can even stream these things on YouTube, which was always used for sports highlights or music videos; never did I imagine it being an outlet for movies and television shows.

So, where does it go next? Will the television become obsolete? Will family gatherings on Sunday afternoons to watch the Patriots turn into everyone tuning in on their own virtual reality headset and standing on the sidelines for the game? I sure hope not. This is of course an exaggeration, but with recent advancements in technology and articles I have read about the future of the NFL and holographic images brought to the living room, I’m not so sure it’s out of the question. There is already a crazy announcement in the NFL with Twitter recently winning the bid for the right to stream Thursday Night Football games in the fall of 2016. Anyone with a Twitter account can log in and watch the games on your smartphone, laptop or even television if it is a smart TV or has an HDMI connection. Twitter won the rights over CBS, ESPN and the NFL Network. How? Because the future of television is evolving, even in the world of sports which I always thought would keep the television set a permanent fixture in sport fanatics households. That being said, if I can watch sports via my Twitter account, why am I paying Comcast $100 or more a month for everything that I can receive on the internet? Well, a large part of that is because Comcast is also my source for internet access and it is the package that becomes worth it with the high cost of internet. But, if there is an alternative source in the future for internet access, cable companies will become obsolete, the internet will become crucial and the television may evolve into a giant computer with Twitter applications to stream your favorite television shows, movies, news and sporting events.