An article about how TiVo is running some peoples’ lives ragged.
“For something that is supposed to be relaxing and unwinding at the end of the day, you (think) ‘Wow! I have a lot of shows to watch,'” said Scott Bedard, technology director at an online media company in San Francisco. “Will I ever catch up?” he worries aloud.
[…] Like an ever-growing stack of magazines on a coffee table, the TiVo glut promises many enjoyable hours of entertainment. But the sheer amount is also overwhelming.
Many TiVo users say they bought the device thinking it would allow them to take greater control of their TV watching. Instead, they find themselves burdened with another obligation in their already filled day.
Kevin Coto, a financial systems consultant in New York City, can relate. “I get to the point now where I skip going to the gym so I can keep up with watching “Dawson’s Creek” reruns,” which are broadcast for two hours each day, he said. “I look forward to when they end so I won’t be stressed.”
The reference article in BoingBoing makes the same case.
When I first got my TiVo, having a lot of programming on the drive felt like someone had done me a large favor; but over time, it felt almost like a nag: here’s all this “work” I’ve got piled up for you to do.
It notes, though:
Of course, this isn’t specific to TiVo — any PVR has this effect, as does an RSS reader, mail reader and so on: the unread/unwatched/undealt-with flags that define my life multiply, and my personal time does not.
Which is an interesting point. I have folders with dozens, hundreds, even thousands of unread e-mail messages, stuff I hate to get rid of because maybe there’s something there I would enjoy, or because it would take too much effort to sift through.
The upside of the information revolution means we have more info than we know what to do with; the downside is that we have more info than we know what to do with.
It’s also a low-tech problem: I’ve got a stack of unread books and unplayed games on the shelf to go with my unwatched DVDs.
Some day….
I think these people suffering from a scheduling problem. Either that, or I’m stuck in my system rut. We PVR (Dish Network’s TIVO) everything, and then on Sunday evenings, we sit around and watch everything we taped. Granted, that is not a huge list, but it works for us. The ability to skip through the commercials and go back to watch a scene again if we think we missed something is worth it to me.
I’ll confess I can see myself falling into the “Hey, just one more thing I want to watch tonight” trap more easily if I had all the stuff I like TiVoed. I can also imagine feeling that sort of self-inflicted pressure to watch all the stuff.
That said, I think it’s also a manageable problem. 🙂
I have a Tivo. I record a lot of stuff. I think people have a much bigger problem if they feel pressured to watch “Dawson’s Creek” reruns.
I mostly quit watching television ages ago, so I have no use for a Tivo. (Of course, I said that about almost every bit of tech gear I now possess, including this computer.) I remember feeling awfully pressured to watch my favorite shows; once when I slept through an episode of The X-Files (and forgot to set my vcr) I was in a foul mood for days. Fortunately the show’s creators saved me by making the show unwatchable…