Tuesday, November 15, 2022

The ongoing exhaustion of too much choice


There are so many streaming services available, along with so many other options for consuming your favourite entertainments, and it's getting fucking exhausting keeping up with it. There is just so much to keep track of, so many choices to make, and sometimes I just want something I don't know I want.

I still dig broadcast TV for the randomness of it, for the ability to turn things on and just get delivered something I never asked for, or chose. I feel weirdly more connected to the world when watching a live broadcast on the TV.

It's not just a television thing, I'm going through another radio phase. I'm not listening to any station in particular, I just love spinning the dial around the 20+ stations available in the local area, and like seeing what stumble upon 

There's enough stations that as soon as one cuts to ads or baying DJs, I can shift up the frequency and find some old banger, or some silky new pop hit.  

(It's also a Twitter thing, where the idiot who bought the company for too much money is now spraying the idea of more curation all over the place, when we all really just want want the randomnesss of the regular feed, from the people you trust, not what your half-arsed algorithm thinks we want.)

It's just exhausting having to choose all the time, just having to decide between the 200 TV shows people have told you that you have to watch. I crave the fine thrills of things that pop up out of the blue.

We don't have streaming in the house anymore, and it's not just because many of those companies are run by total fuckbags, it's because it's too much choice, and it's just too much effort to go through it all. I just want what's on, stop asking me to decide for you.

No comments: