Huh ? What ? Tv ? : Why watch tv when you have the Internet.
Jun 02TV ? erm .. huh ? What ?
I get caught in these moments regularly . “Did you see that on tv yesterday ?” they ask me enthusiastically. As my facial expression starts to equal that of a chipmunk piloting a space-capsule I know i’m in for it again. Oh my .. TV. Apparently this kind of linear one way entertainment is still extremely popular under the masses. Like Zombies they flock together on the couch and watch endless reruns of episodes they have either all seen before or don’t like watching at all. Lobotomized and tasteless from the waste up the munch Sitcom after Sitcom, Reality show after reality show and the 52th rerun of a Simpsons episode they are now unconsciously mumbling along with as the episode progresses.
Higdev : Same crap , more pixels.
Together with the rise of high definition television comes the hype (here in Belgium at least) of tv on demand. The three main tv networks offer ‘tv on demand” where you can have a little “dressed down like a hobo” style pvr record your shows and give you the luxury of minute time-shifting. Now what has been voiced by the people over the last years has been : There is nothing on tv ! The answer of the Tv stations is to roll out technology that lets you see the same crap over and over again, and if you don”t have it , they will just rerun the same crap all over again. It has come to the point where I truely am unable to watch mainstream tv WITHOUT a laptop on my lap to at least surf the internet or do something productive when I’m forced to watch tv.
Tubeless.
But .. However there are times that I to am tied to the tube. Like yesterday for example. Came home .. popped up behind the computer (little chatting , little writing, little skyping to do) and opened up my Itunes folder. Law and behold there was my list of podcasts and videocasts. Since I have subscribed to quite a few I clicked one ( The Haunted new Jersey Videocast ) and while typing up an email in the next window, watched an entire 25 minute episode and be very very entertained. Next up was an hour long DL.TV that brought me up to speed with what was going on in tech this week. Spicing it of with some Geekbreef TV (You have to love Cali Lewis for her work) and some Rocketboom . Now before I knew it … The evening was over . I had watched a selection of video-entertainment that I had personally selected, watched in my own good time and was not bored for a minute. And this weekend i'm looking forward to a free , full featured cult movie thanx to The cult of UHF .. What more could I want ?
Tv … Huh What ?
So next time people ask me .. Did you see this and that on TV yesterday, i’m going to have to give them that blank stare again. What ? Huh ? Like I'm some dumb-ass retard that just bounced on the pavement after falling from a three story building.. While in fact .. i’m already on the next step of the evolutionary ladder in tv entertainment. But the weirdest part is . For me it (like with all technology) it already has surpassed the phase of ‘novelty” and has become a normal everyday experience .. On the edge of real and cyberspace.
