On Television Addiction
According to Reuters, "Some 79 percent of 1,000 DVR owners reported that the technology has improved their relationship, according to the NDS DVR Report....The results show how fast the DVR has become an indispensable part of many people's lives in the US," said Steve Tranter, vice president, broadband and interactive delivery, NDS Americas. "It's one of those technologies that, once you use it, it makes you wonder how you coped before."
I just don't get it, but I imagine the last sentence explains it. I suppose one would have to watch a lot of television too.
6 comments :
I just don't get it, but I imagine the last sentence explains it. I suppose one would have to watch a lot of television too.
Actually, that isn't necessarily the case. I used to think the same thing...until we got TiVo in our home on the recommendation of our then Lutheran pastor. I probably watch 3 - 4 hours per week (excluding the news which I try to watch daily at my husband's encouragment even though I don't want to and many times just don't) but during those hours now I watch only those few programs I enjoy. And I can do it on my schedule. Plus...I can take a PLN (Post Liturgical Nap) on Sundays dozing off to an old episode of Columbo or Murder She Wrote. Sweet! Although sometimes my husband does his TiVo viewing of Formula One races then...which are also very good to fall asleep to. But you still have young children at home...the concept of PLN doesn't really become interesting until later.
Honestly...if a person has the budget for it, I think TiVo is a great way to optimize the little time one does spend watching TV.
This from a person who still has an old 27 inch tube television!
I always joked "Tivo saved our marriage..." Traveling and forgetting to set the VCR certainly caused more stress - Tivo solved it.
For us the biggest reason to timeshift is to avoid commercials. Our old VCR and the Tivo both have 30 sec skip making those 60 min programs about 42-45 minutes. Time saved and no commercial preaching to these itching ears (for the latest toy or product.)
DVR is really a wonderful thing. Why is it so great? Because it causes you to watch LESS television (always a good thing). I never sit and vegitate anymore. I no longer vegitate. I only watch TV on demand. I watch my recorded shows and when they are over I turn the TV off. Half of the stuff I record, I end up deleting after it turns out to be less than what I hoped for.
I can leave it. If a pressing matter comes up, if I need to have a conversation with someone, if there is work that needs to be done, I just leave it and pick up where I left off. You lose the excuse to procrastinate because the show will always be there and there are no hurt feelings when shows are "being missed" because of someone else's schedule.
I am also spared commercials so that I spend all of the time watching TV actually enjoying the program that I sat down to watch. I can fast forward through stupid or inappropriate parts of a program. Usually, I go through 3 hours of TV in about 45 minutes.
DVR is the next best thing to getting rid of the TV all together.
DVRs are really great. We watch less TV than ever, but as others have said, we never miss the programs we really enjoy, we can cut the time by 25% by skipping commercials and you can pause for snacks or a ringing phone. Also, I imagine it would be really nice for families with young children. You can pre-record childrens' programming for viewing when appropriate for their schedule and mature program for when the kiddies are tucked away for the night.
I have to add my voice in support of DVRs.
Before the DVR, I scheduled time for television. This meant that in daily practice, television was on equal footing with actual responsibilities such as family, church, etc.
The DVR has relegated television to a very low status in my house. Now television shows are like magazine subscriptions. They get delivered to me regularly, and I can view them or leave them in a queue where they are forgotten and eventually deleted.
This has actually resulted in my watching far less television than I used to. Back when I had to schedule out blocks of time for a television show, I frequently ended up watching it whether I was really interested or not, because I had already gone to the trouble of setting aside the time. But now my television viewing takes place in spare segments of time where I can honestly say I have nothing better to do (as defined according to the value of the show in question).
The quality of programming that I watch has also increased dramatically. Part of this is due to the fact that I just turn off the junk and go watch something better; but a lot of it is that I can watch the best programming, no matter when it's on. For example, EWTN had a great show called The Domestic Church, but it was on at really absurd times. But that was okay because every week a new episode was sitting in the queue waiting for me to watch at my convenience.
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