McLuhan never predicted this

I don't watch much television these days.  This has to do with both the lack of time my schedule allows for sitting in front of TV and also the lack of quality programs.  I am, however, a huge fan of the Thursday night lineup on NBC.  On an ideal Thursday night, I would plant myself on the couch at 7 p.m. and watch the following shows: "Wheel of Fortune," "Jeopardy," "Community," "Parks and Recreation," "The Office" and "30 Rock."  I would then change the channel to Lifetime and watch "Project Runway" and "Models of the Runway."  
Alas, Thursday nights I have class until 9 p.m. and am never able to watch all my shows back to back. This is never a problem  though because I can always easily view what I missed the night before by watching them online. In the last couple of years, hulu.com has become one of my most regularly visited sites and is essential to catch up on the shows I do watch.
Sites like hulu.com make watching television more convenient than ever before.  You no longer have to fight with your kid sister for the remote or worry about bothering your roommate while watching your favorite show.  Strangely enough, watching television shows no longer requires owning a television. Computers may never completely upstage television sets, but future generations will definitely have  a different relationship with their TVs than my generation does.
Aside from the shows I have listed above, I find very few of the programs on TV worth my precious time.  This, I believe, is also part of the reason watching television online is becoming more and more popular.  When nothing is on TV, instead of surfing the channels, people now surf the web.  Instead of settling for reruns or some lame reality show, it is easy to find your favorite episode of some obscure program that was cancelled years ago.  
Two weeks ago my boyfriend and I were searching hulu.com for something to watch.  We were discouraged to find out that we were all caught up on our regular programs.  It was then that I was introduced to the wonders of Netflix Instant View.  If you have a Netflix account, you also have access online to a whole data base of movies and TV shows that can be played instantly on your computer. Unfortunately the selection is not as large as the Netflix DVD collection that comes in the mail, but there is some awesome stuff on there.  
Since my discovery of Netflix Instant View, I have watched all three seasons of "Arrested Development," which I was previously not privy to and I am currently on the prowl for another show to devour. With television online, there is never a lack of something to watch and there is always time to squeeze in a commercial-free episode of something.