A few nights ago while catching up on Galactica and 30 Rock on my beloved Hulu I found myself thankful for the ads. Insane, I know, but after several years of experiencing episodic television only via DVDs, DVRs and iTunes I had grown accustomed to TV not having ads.
What I didn’t know was that I was missing them all along.
Now I’m not talking about the ads themselves… jaysus, who could miss those? Except for movie trailers and exercise equipment ads– always fun, but not how you’re thinking, hentai. No, I’m talking about the time ads afford us, the time for reflection. Now in the case of that viewing service that I won’t namedrop again the ads are only 15 seconds long. Practically blipverts. Still, it managed to be just enough time to catch a breath, let the last beat of the act sink in, or go back over the best joke so far. In short, ads are good for the mental digestion.
Which leads me to thinking about how our ultra convenient world is having the unintended consequence of lowering our quality of life. All our time saving and time shifting devices are failing to recontextualize our culture, they’re just decontextualizing it. The more we can have the more we want, and we want it faster. So we turn to spoiler reports on io9, or to checking our Twitter feed every 8.9 seconds just to get the latest NEW… not necessarily the latest NEWS.
The first time I realized this maybe wasn’t the greatest way to live was back during the Star Wars Prequels. Spoiler reports became an addiction, and by the time I saw the movies there were no surprises left. I was left with the execution of the plot through the performances and direction… and we all know how that turned out. However it wasn’t until very recently that I made the connection between this “all novel, all the time” mentality of geek culture that I am so throughly awash in and what George Ritzer called the “irrationality of rationalization”. Essentially the more efficient a process is, the less patience we have with it.
Checked your email lately?
This synchs up nicely (or horrifically if you want to be less cute about it) with my self-observation about delayed gratification and my inability to indulge in that essential element of classical maturity. Faster, stronger, better, now… that’s the 21st century way.
Well I think I’ve just about had enough. You can’t enjoy the food you don’t bother to slow down enough to taste, and that’s what seems to be going on with our entire culture. Which is crazy, because there is so much of it being forged right now, and so many hundreds of years worth of it accessible to even the most destitute American (I’m looking at you, homeless guy in the Berkeley Public Library) that there’s really no need to race to the “end”. No need to “skip past the commercials” when the truth is that no one person is ever going to be able to get to the bottom of the cultural cracker barrel.
So I’m slowing down. Oh, I’ll still get amped for the new; just try to keep me out of the comic shop on Big Event Wednesdays or off the line for the first screening of Dark Knight. Only I’m going to be more concerned with savoring each course than getting to my next meal. If I’m lucky, I might just find myself having my own thoughts for once.
