Back in the 90s when still in school, I remember rushing back home every evening to binge watch my favourite TV shows from 5:30 – 7 pm. That was the kids’ hour; all my favourite cartoons and TV shows aired in that time slot. Even a half-an-hour delay meant I missed one entire episode. Which meant I probably wouldn’t ever get to watch it again.

Not cool.

My manic dashes back home were wrought with anxiety because I never knew whether I’d make it back in time. Sometimes I did, sometimes I didn’t. But all the times I did, there was that amazing feeling of being comfortably settled in your couch watching a show you absolutely dig. With the evolution of technology, my anxiety now kicks in every time I’m watching House Of Cards online and the connection breaks and the video stops to buffer. It’s kind of the same feeling.

Saying cell phones, laptops and tablets have taken over the world and changed the way we consume entertainment would be no great revelation. But it’s interesting how they evoke in us more or less the same kinds of emotions about content we like to consume.

When the latest Game of Thrones season released last year I didn’t watch it right away. There was no hurry to watch it on its day of release for fear that I might never watch it again. Instead, I binge watched all the episodes in one sitting after the entire series came out. The evening I watched it I got delayed at work three times. And even though I knew the series would remain online for all of eternity for me to watch it any time I pleased, there was still that stray pang of nervous anticipation for what was in store.

Going home, lying back on my couch and streaming the entire thing on my computer (buffer free, if the Internet gods were kind enough to allow it).

My point is simple – TV brought in appointment viewing; I had to play by the network’s timetable. With digital, I make my timetables; I decide when to watch the content I like. Not only that, I’m now actively discovering content from multiple portals, and I make my own schedules for when I want to watch all my favourite TV shows.

Kids today walk back from school at their own leisurely pace. They have iPads and iMacs waiting for them at home using which they can watch all their favourite shows after they’ve finished their homework for the day. They even have the leisure to watch half an episode at one time and leave the rest for later.

There’s three TVs in my house today, two more than I had as a kid. But all of them I use merely as screens to cast my content to from my laptop or mobile device. To my generation, the unique feeling of coming home after a hard day’s work and sitting back in your couch tuned into your favourite show has been traditionally associated with TV.

However, for me now – and, in fact, mostly everyone today – that feeling’s now slowly coming to be associated with the Web. Because digital has in fact replaced TV in a big way in my life. It’s really brought back feelings and emotions from my childhood that I never thought I’d experience again. Digital’s done it in a different way altogether, but it’s ended up having the same overall effect.