This explains why I don’t own a TV
From Clay Shirky’s talk at the Web 2.0 Expo last week, where he also addresses the totally retarded “Where do people find the time for internet participation?” question:
I was having dinner with a group of friends about a month ago, and one of them was talking about sitting with his four-year-old daughter watching a DVD. And in the middle of the movie, apropos nothing, she jumps up off the couch and runs around behind the screen. That seems like a cute moment. Maybe she’s going back there to see if Dora is really back there or whatever. But that wasn’t what she was doing. She started rooting around in the cables. And her dad said, “What you doing?” And she stuck her head out from behind the screen and said, “Looking for the mouse.”
Here’s something four-year-olds know: A screen that ships without a mouse ships broken. Here’s something four-year-olds know: Media that’s targeted at you but doesn’t include you may not be worth sitting still for. Those are things that make me believe that this is a one-way change. Because four year olds, the people who are soaking most deeply in the current environment, who won’t have to go through the trauma that I have to go through of trying to unlearn a childhood spent watching Gilligan’s Island, they just assume that media includes consuming, producing and sharing.
Filed under: Life
That was my favorite talk of the entire week. Beautifully delivered. I’ve watched barely any tv for years now. When I have done so it has been the for the same reasons as those that would see me sitting down with a bottle of gin ;) I haven’t been able to explain this without coming across a bit odd. Now I can direct people to the vid of Clay’s keynote. Great stuff :)
Jackie, I’d agree to a point, but interaction favours some out of the four cognition or learning styles which is part of the reason why we see a pyramid effect in terms of social media with the vast majority ‘just’ consuming, a small amount synthesising or editing and an even smaller amount as fully blown producers.
The networks don’t help themselves any with schedules full of shows I don’t want to watch.
Ged, I don’t disagree. I also don’t know how what you’re saying is at odds with the idea that the ability to interact at various levels - even if not taken up by the user - is a default to which we are now accustomed.