Discussion»Questions»Life and Society» Use your imagination: what are some ways life and society would be different if television for home use had never been invented?
Little need to use imagination for this one - how people lived before television is accessible via the novels of those times.
My Mum grew up in a small country town in that era. She said people made their own entertainments. Conversation was an important social skill, at its best almost an art form. People loved practical jokes, dares and pranks - an example, my grandfather was dared to strip naked and ride a donkeys backwards down the centre of Collins St (CBD) in the city of Melbourne (Australia). He accepted. Everyone went along to see it, laughed and had a great old time. No one arrested him for indecency, and it never made the newspapers - a sign that in those days no one minded a good prank or dare. People went out a lot to parties at each other's places, to theatre, dance and live music. Far more people participated in tennis, horse riding and other sports. Most people had some kind of hobby, craft or interest. People read the newspaper from cover to cover most days. People read books, wrote letter and kept diaries.