When India Watched: The Lost Art of Collective TV Viewing

📺 The TV wasn't a screen. It was a shrine. Families gathered. Neighbours brought stools. One show = one colony watching together. Ramayan on Sundays felt like a national festival. Now? You watch in bed. Alone.

🧒 Cartoons weren't "content." They were imagination, morality, and magic. Shaktimaan taught right from wrong. Shaka Laka Boom Boom made dreams tangible. Every show felt like a message with meaning.

🎵 Even ads were events. Washing Powder Nirma. Dhara's jalebi boy. Fevicol. Dairy Milk. You didn't skip them. You sang them. You felt them. Today's 5-sec skippables can't match that emotional grip.

🎤 Reality shows = real emotions. Indian Idol. KBC. DID. You didn't just watch. You voted. You cried. You felt like family. "SMS karo apne sapne jeetne ke liye" Now it's: "Next episode in 5 seconds."

📡 Cable killed collectiveness. DTH gave every room its own remote. Dad = sports. Mom = serials. Kids = cartoons. And just like that — shared TV time fragmented into solo screen time.

📲 Then came Jio. And OTT. Suddenly, 1 screen turned into 1B phones. TV left the living room. Now it lives in your pocket. Binge. Alone. No waiting. No family. No ritual.

👀 TV used to be about togetherness. Today, it's just convenience. From "Sab saath baith ke dekhenge" To "Tu dekh le, mujhe mat bataana spoiler" We gained access. But lost connection.

🧠 Content changed. But so did how we consume. From: — Scheduled shows → Infinite scroll — Joint watching → Solo streams — Shared emotion → Personalized algorithm This wasn't just media evolution. It was a cultural shift.

📚 What we lost: — The joy of waiting — The power of ritual — The warmth of shared emotion — A generation raised by one story at a time Now? We're alone. Scrolling. Drowning in choice.