A Personal Perspective: How Streaming Reconnected Our Family
Let me tell you about my neighbors, Bill and Carol. Both in their late seventies, they were feeling the distance from their two grown children and four grandchildren, who lived in different states. Phone calls were nice, but they often struggled to find things to talk about that bridged the generation gap. Their world felt a little small.
For Christmas, their son sent them a Roku stick. For weeks, it sat in the box, an intimidating piece of black plastic. Finally, their tech-savvier granddaughter, Sarah, walked them through the setup over a video call. She signed them into her family’s Disney+ account and suggested they all watch a new fantasy series together. Each week, a new episode was released.
Something magical happened. After the first episode, Sarah called them, bubbling with excitement to discuss the cliffhanger. The next week, their son joined the call. Soon, it became a Sunday evening ritual. Bill and Carol would watch the new episode, jot down a few notes, and then have a lively, hour-long video chat with their family. They weren’t just talking about the weather anymore; they were dissecting character motivations, predicting plot twists, and laughing at the same jokes. The show became the glue that created a new, shared family experience.
Emboldened, Bill rediscovered his love for old Westerns on Tubi, while Carol found a British baking show that inspired her to try new recipes. Streaming didn’t isolate them in front of a screen; it opened up their world, giving them new hobbies to enjoy and, most importantly, a new way to bond with the people they loved most.
