Thanks to Jeremy Zawodny for drawing my attention to Clay Shirky’s talk on the cognitive surplus. Shirky makes some excellent points. Give it 17 minutes of your time and watch. My comments follow.
I agree with Shirky, we like to do more than we like to watch. That’s why it was so funny when Peter Sellers, as Chance in Being There, said, “I like to watch TV.” Have you ever watched a child show his newest toy to his friend? The friend can only respond in one way: Let me see it! And we all know what that means. The friend does not want to look at it; he wants to touch it, play with it, fully experience it by interacting with it.
Like Shirky, I too grew up watching TV. There were not many choices in how to spend my time. I could watch TV, I could read a book, I could play with my toys, I could go outside, I could do homework. I had a creative bent as a child, too. Most of us do. I took a lot of pictures, entered photo contests, showed them to my family and friends. But there were no web sites on which I could publish them. I decided to write a book on drawing. I only got as far as the chapter on “How to draw an airplane” before quitting. Why? In large part, because I realized that I would never get it published. Without blogs, there was no way for amateur artist Art to share his new-found wisdom.
The world has changed since the dark ages of home entertainment. Now, in addition to watching TV, reading a book, playing with my toys, going outside, and doing homework; we can use our brains, create something, and show it off. What could possibly be better than improving the world a little bit? What could possibly be better than being admired? The internet and the computer have given all of us the capability to take our ideas out of our heads and manifest them in the real world. We can have real impact on other people’s lives. How can passively watching television possibly compete with that?
Is TV doomed? I don’t know the answer to that big question but I can tell you that, in my house, we don’t have a television receiver or a satellite receiver or a cable TV box. There are so many more compelling ways to spend our time that the cost of a satellite subscription far outweighed the value of the few shows that we took the time to watch.
This is a Good Thing. Thinking and doing is much better than simply watching.
