By BILL CHAISSON
In the Stream
Once upon a time we experienced media on the schedule devised by the provider of the content. Radio and television had schedules, and films had screen times. You could play audio and video recordings anytime you wanted, but they were released at intervals so as not to “saturate the market.”
All of this has gone out the proverbial window. Now you can listen and watch anything you want whenever you want to listen or watch it. This is regarded as an unmitigated victory for the consumer. You can listen to only the music that wish (or have an algorithm select it for you and you can then accept or reject selections with a press of a button). The same goes for the video viewing. No wonder attendance at the movies and at live performances is way down: you have to show up on someone else’s schedule.
The new means of access has created the phenomenon of binge watching. You can watch an entire season of a program or all the “Pirates of the Caribbean” flims end to end. The viewer, who believes he is freer than ever to make choices, is perhaps more enslaved than ever. Because the idea of media is always to get you to buy more of what they want to see you, all they want you to do is spend more time watching and listening. And the number of commercials just grows.
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