In the Netflix series
Pretend It's A City, Fran Lebowitz is asked at a Q&A what she thinks about new technology and whether it's right for a two-year-old to have an iPad and how that will change them. Given her kvetching throughout most of the rest of the series and how she herself doesn't use social media and the like, the answer clearly surprises the audience. The writer says, "Yes, she will be different, that is true, but she may not be worse, she may be better, we don't know this, it's possible this will make them better. It will make them better at the world of iPads, because that will be their world."
Douglas Adams says something similar in an essay he wrote for The Sunday Times in 1999 and subsequently republished posthumously in The Salmon of Doubt. He suggests there's a set of rules that describe our relationship to technology:
- Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.
- Anything that's invented between when you're fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary, and you can probably get a career in it.
- Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things.
I was born into the world only seven years after the introduction of colour television transmissions in 1967. So like youngsters born in the past decade or so, I grew up in the transitional period of a new technology and one that would have a profound effect on how the nation viewed itself. For at least a decade, I remember watching broadcasts in both colour and black and white, with my first viewings of Moonlighting, My So-Called Life, numerous sitcoms, and some of Quantum Leap on a small, ancient black and white Bakelite TV.
But there'll be people born not that long after me, for whom colour television was perfectly normal, just as there'll be others who turned up on Earth before me who saw colour television as just plain alien magic. What must it have been like to see films in colour for the first time since they were on theatrical release, things like The Wizard of Oz regaining their Technicolor power. The closest I can think of is the number of films that many of us originally saw on a panned and scanned VHS tape that are now available in their original aspect ratio in high definition.
Which is why I agree with Fran. Although I'll admit the extent to which young people are online and are absorbing new technology is far more profound a step than being able to watch Snooker and not have some of the balls merge into the background. As she says, although people will change, we can't say for certain if it's to the good or bad because the internet, like the BBC, has the capacity to inform, educate, and entertain, and it's up to the user to choose which they partake in. But I'd argue that kids are even more progressive than ever before (for the most part), and they'll be all right.
1, 2, 3, 4
First Ever Show on Radio 1 Tony Blackburn 30th September 1967. Complete unscoped."This is where it all began, that Saturday morning in 1967 seconds after Robin Scott announced 'Time for Switching' Tony Blackburn (pictured) leapt into action playing 'Flowers In The rain' to launch the very first Radio 1 Breakfast Show. This is the complete version no scoping - every track every jingle every trail."
[Noel Tyrrel]
Archive on 4: Close to Home - The Story of Local Radio"As well as the launch of BBC Radio 1 to 4, 1967 also saw the arrival of the BBC's first batch of local radio stations: Radio Leicester on 8th November, Radio Sheffield on 15th November and Radio Merseyside on 22nd November."
[BBC Sounds]
BBC Radio Merseyside Opens"We are going to set Merseyside talking — about itself. Our simple aim here on Merseyside is to get the community talking, and to bring a new form of self-expression through our microphones to Britain’s most lively area."
[Radio Times via Transdiffusion]
Recording The Records"When BBC local radio launched in 1967, an agreement about paying for the music broadcast by stations was reached between the corporation and the agencies representing artists and publishers. The arrangement was an up-front annual lump sum to be paid to the Performing Rights Society (PRS) and Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL). The BBC was responsible for managing the ‘needle time’ allowance for each station."
[Transdiffusion]
Archive
The Hecklers"A BBC documentary by Joseph Strick. In this fast-moving programme the well-known American film director Joseph Strick shows us the way the British behave during the heat of a General Election. To him, as a foreigner, the lively battles between hecklers and speakers are a fascinating example of British democracy at work. So this film brings to life - in a completely new way - the campaign which ended a year ago tonight."
[BBC Clips][BBC Programme Index]
The Marshall McLuhan Golden Probe Show"Marshall McLuhan tests his communication theories on the audience of Release on BBC Two in September 1967. He uses 20 'Golden Probes' - statements about a variety of subjects - and viewers can test their results with a form in the Radio Times."
[BBC Clips]
Pheasants to Formosa"Documentary about the work of The Pheasant Trust in Norfolk, and an investigation into Taiwanese practices to provide Chinese medicine."
[East Anglian Film Archive]
Benjamin Britten And His Festival"Behind the scenes look at the Aldeburgh festival, including interviews with Benjamin Britten and the other major players."
[East Anglian Film Archive]
Man Alive: All on a Summer's Day"A colour film about the annual village fete at Stoke St. Gregory in Somerset, from the bashing in of the tent pegs to the evening jam session in the marquee."
[BBC Rewind]
Something'll Happen By Friday"This is a BBC North documentary on the Whitby Gazette. Accompanied by a light-hearted commentary, the film provides a profile of the paper and of those on making it, stressing its local character."
[Yorkshire Film Archive]
People
Lord Hill: Shock at the BBC"About nine o’clock on the evening of 25 July 1967 my wife and I were dozing peacefully in front of our television set at home in Hertfordshire when the telephone rang."
Lord Hill became chairman of the governors.
[Transdiffusion]
The BBC correspondent who found Chichester’s Gypsy Moth IV"We’ve just found Sir Francis Chichester . . . he’s down there in Gypsy Moth IV. She’s rolling very heavily. There’s no sign of him on deck. It’s one of the worst seas I’ve ever seen – or ever want to see . . . in the distance there, is the ugly great mass of Cape Horn . . ."
[Look and Learn]
Places
The first BBC television live broadcast from an RAF plane"Welcome to Royal Air Force Station, Watton for tonight’s B.B.C. live television outside broadcast. I do want to stress that this is an engineering experiment. No-one knows exactly what’s going to happen – but we know what we want . ."
[Look and Learn]
Programmes
The History of Colour TV in the UK:"Find out about the history of colour TV in the UK, including the inventions that led to its introduction, the first broadcasts in Britain, and how people watched early colour television programmes."
[Science and Media Museum]
Peep-peep, Pandit and ‘papers: Richard Carpenter and Look and Read"What did Richard Carpenter once describe as: “The most difficult thing I’ve ever written in my life”? His first ever television commission? Three series’ worth of comedy about a small cast limited to a single set? Attempting to make The Adventures of Black Beauty in any way watchable?"
[Off The Telly]
Remembering the Monumental 1967 Broadcast of “Our World”"... on June 25th 1967 a monumental, yet little-remembered television event was broadcast across the globe. For the first time ever, a tv program aired live internationally across continents and time zones via three communication satellites. “Our World” as the program was titled, featured live feeds from 14 different countries and was broadcast to another 24 countries who didn’t contribute to the program itself."
[My Local Radio]
News Time: BBC Symphony Orchestra"The BBC Symphony Orchestra in rehearsal, playing Beethoven's 5th Symphony. The conductor, Antal Dorati, discusses changes with members of the orchestra."
[BBC Rewind]
Politics
BBC Handbook 1968"You have only to glance at the photographs in this edition of the Handbook (which celebrates its fortieth birthday this year) to be aware of the great variety of programmes broadcast in 1967 on the BBC's three radio and two television networks."
[World Radio History]
