of valuable time that could be spent in more productive pursuits, or perhaps furthering pater-
nal and maternal bonds. We can also imagine how adults who are glued to TV for hours, with
no emphasis on curated content, are likely to learn misinformation and dwell on superficial
content targeted toward the entertainment of the mass audience.
The television deserves as much praise as it deserves criticism, though. Aside from popu-
lar entertainment, people around the planet depend on the television for information that fur-
thers their understanding of the world around them. We get to hear different opinions, and
watch debates and documentaries that are truly educational. Television also allows us to share
in worldwide events. Ask anyone alive in the US in July 1969 how profound an event it was to
watch the Apollo 11 mission landing the first human beings on the moon. An estimated 600
million people watched Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk on the surface of the moon,
demonstrating the triumph of humankind’s success in harnessing technology. The coverage
of the moon landing in the US and across the world bought societies together to appreciate
the spirit of collaboration and the sense of humility gained by comprehending the vast distan-
ces in space—reaching our nearest neighbor, the moon, was no small feat. Even though the
US was responsible for the mission, the world watched in awe, and credit was given to the
entire human race.
The television has brought us live coverage of events that have forever changed our lives
and impacted our opinions. The soul-crushing events of September 11, 2001 in New York City
left a scar in the hearts of almost everyone who watched the live footage of the terrorist-
hijacked airplanes smashing into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, followed by clips
of innocent victims jumping out of windows, and the buildings collapsing, to the horror of
people around the world.
No matter where you stand on the cumulative contribution of the television, we know
these devices aren’t going anywhere any time soon. Families around the globe, in their bil-
lions, own TVs and watch the content broadcasted on them on a regular basis. In recent times
we’ve seen huge improvements in these devices, with TVs sporting larger screen sizes and
greater resolutions, resulting in stunning picture quality. High-definition (HD) televisions
offer resolutions of up to 2,073,600 pixels per frame. The 4K and 8K standards are upcoming
ultra-high-definition successors, with 4K offering four times this resolution (and 8K is rum-
ored to offer resolutions up to 7,680 x 4,320 (33.2 million) pixels.
The new wave of “Smart” televisions in the market today is focused on providing us with
much more than improved resolutions. These devices connect to our WiFi networks to serve
us in ways we might never previously have imagined a TV could or would. These TVs include
services such as watching streaming video, videoconferencing, social networking, and instant
messaging. In the IoT landscape, this “thing” we’ve known as the traditional TV is morphing
into a display that serves us in variety of new ways, in addition to displaying regular content.
Smart TV displays are becoming increasingly popular in households for the added pur-
poses they serve. The current generation of Smart TVs are expensive and available only to the
relatively affluent. However, given the general track record of how quickly technology
122 CHAPTER 5: THE IDIOT BOX—ATTACKING “SMART” TELEVISIONS