My mother is going to watch the Academy Awards over streaming video tonight. Is it because she’s embracing the web, and discovering new ways to enjoy media? Not quite…

If you had to chart my mother on a technology adopter scale, she’d fall somewhere around mid-to-late adopter. The first time I recall getting a text message from her was in 2006, when my parents were traveling abroad and they wanted to touch base at home. Since then she’s learned to text more in large part because my brother communicates almost solely by texting. But the larger point here is that my mother, like most non-technolusting folks, adopts technology for two reasons: out of necessity and because it becomes so ubiquitous that it becomes integral to remaining connected to the mainstream.

In the case of the Academy Awards, it’s both. She doesn’t want to grab her laptop and curl up with it to watch the Oscars, but she HAS to, because Cablevision yanked ABC. And if she doesn’t watch the Oscars, it cuts her off from a social experience of watching the Academy awards tonight and dissecting them tomorrow morning with her colleagues.

CNNMoney reported that as of this morning (when they pulled WABC) both sides were still fighting. Neither company’s statements are pulling any punches:

The two sides were equally blunt in their reactions to the situation. “It is now painfully clear to millions of New York area households that Disney CEO Bob Iger will hold his own ABC viewers hostage in order to extract $40 million in new fees from Cablevision,” Charles Schueler, the company’s executive vice president of communications said in a statement.

“Cablevision’s legendary greed and disregard for the needs of their customers continues,” Rebecca Campbell, president and general Manager of WABC-TV, countered in her own statement. “Now the only way for their subscribers to get ABC7 is to ditch Cablevision and switch to a provider that cares about them.”

And once WABC is back, I have no doubts my parents will return to watching shows on their nice big flat screens instead of a 14inch laptop screen. But barring some major technological snafus, they’ll have learned that streaming shows are not so bad. The next time Cablevision pulls a channel, or they miss DVRing a show, the laptop and the web won’t be so intimidating…and that is Cablevision’s worst nightmare. The most lucrative customers in terms of demographics are the baby boomer generation, and tonight my parents and their friends are about to discover how to cut out the television completely.

Technology will change as it always does, and the next time Apple TV gets updated, or their friends buy a similar product, I wouldn’t be shocked if my parents considered it…and that is the death of television. Geeks may love internet shows, but it’s when your average household starts using it that thing will go downhill. All because Cablevision and ABC won’t get along. Nice job Cablevision!

Are you a Cablevision subscriber? What would you do if ABC were pulled entirely in your area? Share your thoughts below!

(UPDATE: WABC is back, pitchforks and torches put away for the next Cablevision/network fight.)