The Sony Watchman: A Pioneer of Portable Screens

In the early 1980s, TVs were bulky, often made of wood, and took up a lot of space. Sony changed that with the Watchman. This device was a big deal because it was the first TV you could carry around. It was like the Walkman, but for television. The Walkman had already changed how people listened to music, and the Watchman did the same for watching TV. The Watchman wasn't the first portable TV, but it was one of the best. It had a special screen called the Flat Display Picture Tube. This made it smaller than other portable TVs, so you could hide it in a church pew or a business meeting. With more TV channels available, there was always something to watch. People loved it. The Watchman lasted almost 20 years, but eventually, it became outdated. Now, everyone has a smartphone, and portable TVs are a thing of the past. But the Watchman raised important questions. What happens when we fill the world with screens? How does that affect our social lives? These are questions we still ask today. The Watchman was a big deal in its time. It showed how technology could change our lives. But it also made us think about the consequences of always being connected to a screen. For better or worse, the world never went back to the way it was before the Watchman.