Somewhere along the way, however, a bond was broken — at least for some.

“Growing up, TV ruled my life,” said Francine Lieberman, a 25-year-old landscape architect who lives in Chelsea. Even so, she has not owned a television since college, nor do at least half her female friends these days (her male friends, by contrast, all seem to require the splashiest 60-inch available to capture the cinematic glory of “SportsCenter”).

For her, it’s a lifestyle choice.

“I live in New York City, I find events to go to every night, and have seen my social and professional life flourish as a result,” Ms. Lieberman said. “While there are certainly the rare nights where I find myself curling up with an iPad to catch a show, the only time I watch a program from an actual set is during my daily morning run at the gym.”

To be sure, the notion that the television may go the way of the Sony Walkman may sound like hyperbole. Some 34.5 million flat-screen televisions were shipped in the United States last year alone, according to figures compiled by IHS Technology, a global market research company — a substantial number, even if sales are down 13.75 percent, from 40 million, since 2010.

Yet by another, more geek-futurist view, it seems easy to start their obituary, even as manufacturers race to keep up to speed by churning out web-enabled smart TVs. The smartphone age has been cruel to devices that perform only one function. Not only telephones, but egg timers, alarm clocks, desktop calendars, video cameras, even flashlights have all been rendered as inessential as pocket watches by the iPhone and its brethren.

Certainly, the problem is not TV programming. In an age of almost infinite variety, when no one thinks twice about checking to see what’s on Channel 762, TV is arguably more central to American culture than in the heyday of Uncle Miltie. Premium-cable dramas like “True Detective” generate as much critical buzz as Best Picture Oscar nominees. Network ratings powerhouses like “The Voice” dominate the water cooler.

And many millennials who have ditched their TVs still actually love television. They may, in fact, watch more of it than ever since unplugging, thanks to the relatively newfound ability to catch up on their latest shows on their phones or tablets anywhere, at any time. “I can sit on the couch and watch the new season of ‘Orange Is the New Black’ in a weekend,” said Andrew Wojtek, a 26-year-old museum event producer who lives in Harlem. “I can watch while I’m traveling on trains or planes, and staying in hotels. I can watch something on a break in the park or in a coffee shop while wasting time waiting to meet up with a friend.”