Intermittent excitement

　It was 16 years ago. Sydney Olympics. Even though the signal gun went off for women’s marathon, there was no TV broadcast in the United States where I was living at the time. There was no Internet broadcasting, either. My last resort was the Japanese newspaper website. They had text live broadcast. The on-the-spot broadcasting was updated every five minutes.

　I was reading the computer text at my house in Boston. Japanese women were leading the world. Ms. Naoko Takahashi may win. I was overwhelmed. I was going to cry. Then I made an international call to my relative, and asked them to “place the receiver in front of the TV.”

　The live TV broadcasting in Japan came through by sound. The sound was broken, maybe because of the phone line. I learned at that time people get overly excited when they hear important things intermittently. GO TAKAHASHI! I screamed from Boston to Sydney.

　Four years later, Athens Olympics. Ms. Mizuki Noguchi ran. I was watching TV in Tokyo. According to the reporting later, Ms. Naoko Takahashi was training in Colorado in the United States. Since there was no TV broadcast, she listened to the developments on the phone and cheered on. She did the same exact thing that I did. She said she got really excited.

　In 1936, Berlin Olympics was called the Nazi festival. That was 80 years ago. Women’s 200m breaststroke final. My grandfather’s generation devoured the shouting “GO, GO MAEHATA, GO” as the NHK broadcaster Mr. Kawanishi delivered it from Berlin to Japan. I heard that the crystal set radio was intermittent. They must have been excited.

　Crystal set radio progressed to transistor radio, then to TV. International phone calls got connected. The Internet appeared, and we were able to read text on the computer. We can get the sound and video from around the world on our smartphones today. Technology and machine keep progressing.

　However, when it is just the sound with no video and it is intermittent, we get very excited. We shout. The relationship between humans and information, and the connection between the eyes, ears, and emotions do not change in the mere 80 years.

　On the contrary, when you can get any events of the world on your smartphone in the bathroom or on the train as you please, you may not get that excited anymore.

　What will happen for the next Tokyo Olympics? Will people gather in front of a large screen in the city, shout, and check the athletes’ data on their smartphones? Will they send their cheers as they shout? Will the runners read the messages from everyone on eyeglass display as they run?

　Will there be a new way to enjoy, and will a new excitement be born in 2020?