After 75 years of TV, our lives have changed

So many changes have occurred over the years, and our lives have been irreversibly affected: medical advances, scientific discoveries, expeditions of exploration. Few changes, however, have had so much effect on our lives as television.

Yesterday marked the 75th anniversary of the first TV broadcast -- from one room to another. Later, when the first live broadcast featuring President Hoover ended, The New York Times announced to the world that TV didn't seem to have much of a practical future.

Whether we like TV or are dismayed by much of what is being broadcast, there is no getting around the fact that we are a changed society as the result of what goes over the airwaves and winds up in our homes on a glowing screen.

Arguably, TV has done more good than harm. It's how we, the viewers, choose to use this medium that determines whether it is truly beneficial.