The DVR Life
Remember the 1970s, before VCRs? When the whole country watched "MASH", "All in the Family", "Good Times", etc at the exact same time, then discussed the shows the next day?
Remember how cool it was to buy that $500 VCR back in the early 1980s? Or the first time you had cable tv installed and had more than, say, six channels to watch? How glorious it was to watch Australian Rules Football on early ESPN. We watched hours and hours of that our junior year of high school, coming home from school each afternoon in Milford, NH, all the while having no idea what the rules were.
And now we all have DVRs. We here at The 'Pent can tape two shows at a time (sidebar: why the hell is it not possible to record, say, six shows at once? why only TWO? it would seem to be a simple thing to fix.) and often do. For example, it 630am on Friday and we just finished watching a tape of last night's Lakers win, and now we're watching Letterman from the same time slot. We can watch a football or basketball game in half the time it takes to see it live, and it's just as much fun without having to stay up late. We finally have an answer to the years of complaining about Monday Night Football getting over around 1am on the East Coast for so many years. Ha on you, ABC/ESPN.
But the question on the staff's minds this am is: Is the rise of DVR's and the multitude of choices of media in today's society a good thing?
It would seem obvious: Yes. But that's only at first glance. We believe Archie Bunker served a greater good back 35 years ago by pointing out the ridiculousness of racism and sexism. Today, folks who hold strange or hurtful beliefs can find their own niche to revel in and enforce their hurtful ideas. Maybe it was a good thing to talk about the latest episode of "Mary Tyler Moore" nationwide. Maybe it's not a good thing that we have so many choices today.
Remember how cool it was to buy that $500 VCR back in the early 1980s? Or the first time you had cable tv installed and had more than, say, six channels to watch? How glorious it was to watch Australian Rules Football on early ESPN. We watched hours and hours of that our junior year of high school, coming home from school each afternoon in Milford, NH, all the while having no idea what the rules were.
And now we all have DVRs. We here at The 'Pent can tape two shows at a time (sidebar: why the hell is it not possible to record, say, six shows at once? why only TWO? it would seem to be a simple thing to fix.) and often do. For example, it 630am on Friday and we just finished watching a tape of last night's Lakers win, and now we're watching Letterman from the same time slot. We can watch a football or basketball game in half the time it takes to see it live, and it's just as much fun without having to stay up late. We finally have an answer to the years of complaining about Monday Night Football getting over around 1am on the East Coast for so many years. Ha on you, ABC/ESPN.
But the question on the staff's minds this am is: Is the rise of DVR's and the multitude of choices of media in today's society a good thing?
It would seem obvious: Yes. But that's only at first glance. We believe Archie Bunker served a greater good back 35 years ago by pointing out the ridiculousness of racism and sexism. Today, folks who hold strange or hurtful beliefs can find their own niche to revel in and enforce their hurtful ideas. Maybe it was a good thing to talk about the latest episode of "Mary Tyler Moore" nationwide. Maybe it's not a good thing that we have so many choices today.
posted by joe sweeney at 6:26 AM
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