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TV's Tipping Point
alinv writes ": Ashley Highfield, the head of BBC New Media & Technology spoke yesterday at a conference about how TV is being radically changed by users: 'future TV will may be unrecognisable from today, defined not just by linear TV channels, packaged and scheduled by television executives, but instead will resemble more of a kaleidoscope, thousands of streams of content, some indistinguishable as actual channels.'"
I didn't RTFA, but.... Since I got my Tivo, I have no idea what commercials are. Unfortunately, I think I'm missing some cool shows because I never watch live TV anymore.
I think its called the internet.
like tivo? is this news? in the future, shows will probably be subscription based, so you can subscribe to just the shows you like. at least, that's how i'd like things. i don't watch 95% of the crap i get on cable.
2. the audience increasingly wants to join in and get closer to their media.
3. ...consuming more media simultaneously...
4. ...the last trend -- sharing.
So in the future, we will watch multiple reality shows we can shape with our various "votes" at the same time -- a time of our choosing. We'll have sent each other some of the shows, too. This is a revolution?
No one mindblowing idea here -- basically it seems like the BBC's thinking about that "Super -Electronic Programme Guide" to get a little ahead on interfaces, and they don't want to stonewall peer-to-peer models the way the music industry did.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
pr0n - keeping monitor glass spotless since 1981.
Since I got my Tivo, I have no idea what commercials are.
Exactly. I know what they are.
Commercials are: the break in the stream that requires you to hit fast forward for a few seconds.
Commercials are: those pieces of programming that are having to become more entertaining and less obnoxious to have any chance of being seen.
Commercials are: those artifacts of the 20th century that remind you just how painful it is to be fed a linear stream of programming.
Commercials are: what have taught me how to watch the news on a TiVo - quickly hit pause and take a long potty break so I can FF through the commercials when I get back.
Commercials are: those pieces of noisy time that still squat in the middle of broadcast radio feeds that have become so annoying to my sensitivities that I frequently have to turn the damn thing off because the signal to noise ratio is just so abominable compared with my TiVo enabled life.
"Provided by the management for your protection."
Funny you should say that. I used to watch TLC before it became what seems to me to be a lot of BBC one-offs (ripoffs?).
Also, the article mentions 50% of UK residents have internet connectivity and digital TV. A couple of questions: is this the same 50%? As I live in the US, what is the US %'s. When we moved, we did not bother to get cable. Currently it is too much money for too much stuff bundled that I will not watch that I don't want to pay for. So we watch some PBS and read a lot.
So our household falls into the group that does not have digital cable and probably will not until and unless (if ever) the price for selective programming drops to dial-up prices.
Dogma - "let's just say we'd like to avoid any empirical entanglements."
I wonder at what time the television "viewer" became the television "user"....
The problem with television is that it is providing stimulation for several of the senses to such an intense degree, that they become latent and no longer active.Thus, these senses are not being uses to anchor the memory. Anchoring is vital to the efficiency (not ability) of memory. You can memorize a list of numbers with brute force, but that isn't very efficient internally. A small amount of stimulation is good, in fact it can be conducive to good learning. This is why subtle noises like water or crickets (or whatever else you grew up with, some people relax to traffic) can relax your mind and allow you to function at a higher level of efficiency.
This is where balance comes in to the picture, and it it is a good rule of thumb. The problem with television is that it is by its very nature an over-balance. It is a saturation of sense stimulation through two paths with causes two things to happen. As already mentioned, those sense paths become latent, and secondly, the other senses become "blind" to their surroundings. In effect, the mind shuts down most of its ability to function imaginatively, which is vital for healthy learning.
That raises the question of why the mind learns that way, but that is where things start to become a good deal more complex. If you are really interested in the why, do some research on information theory in relation to brain bandwidth, recent research on the "sub-conscious," and how the conscious mind is not intended to be used as the primary vehicle for true, healthy, wisdom building learning.
As I read through your list of ways in which television has benefit you, I couldn't help but notice that in all cases you used some small detail in a particular show to springboard a session of research or further experience without the further help of the televison. In other words, you are not actually doing your learning with the TV, you are using it as a nearly random topic generator. The same thing could just as easily be accomplished with a careful mix of random encylopaedia and Internet usage. Using these two as springboards you could accomplish just as much research into things that interest you. So it is not the TV that is at stake there, it is simple your preference for a dynamic base of trivia from which you can pull interesting facts from.
That's great! But recognize that it is simply that, not the television.
V
Dropping the commercials is not the answer. About four years ago, as a cost-cutting measure my wife and I dropped our cable access back to the ultra-basic service. Entire seasons have come and gone and we have not checked in to see any of the new programs. Eventually everything with sufficient episode count makes it into syndication on WGN or Oxygen or one of the local channels, so if I like I can see some of what I missed. I am usually underwhelmed. The serious crap simply disappears. I took up my television viewing slacktime with reading and cable internet access. The extra cost was more than covered by dropping a telephone line we had been using for our dialup service. I am working on my wife to drop the other landline in favor of expanded cellphone service. Many of our younger friends have already done this.
Goddamned kids! Get off my lawn!