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Television On Demand and On the Go: Miracle or Menace?

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I don’t know when you were born, but when I was a kid, you had to make time for TV. If you wanted to watch something you had to make sure you were at home when it was on. Sure we had VCRs but they were a new technology, and more often than not, something would go screwy in the machine’s works and you’d end up with an hour of Day’s of Our Lives instead of the episode of Quantum Leap you wanted to see.

Even DVRs, for all of their techno wondrousness, have their flaws. When they first came out, they had to be installed by professionals or you ran the risk of having what amounted to a very expensive VCR—only able to record the channel it was on. Or, worse, it would only record part of what you wanted because it would decide that what you really wanted to see was something else and would switch over all on its own.

But then, someone got the genius idea to put television shows on the Internet and make them available for downloading and streaming so we could watch whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted to watch it. We actually had television on demand. And, lo, there was much rejoicing across the fandoms.

We didn’t think it could get better than that, but it did. Mobile devices were implanted with hard drives and Internet connectivity and suddenly, as long as we had a good signal and enough room on our data plan, we could watch TV from wherever we were. Sure it was on a tiny screen, but being able to watch four episodes of Breaking Bad while enduring a flight delay in Cincinnati sure makes that layover easier to take.

It isn’t just the streaming media services like Netflix and Hulu that are available on mobile devices. They paved the way, sure, but they are just a drop in the bucket of available mobile media. HBO, for example, is now available to anybody with an Apple Device (or a Windows computer via the PlayOn service). CBS has confirmed that it’s creating a streaming service for its shows. (Which explains why you can’t find them anywhere right now.) Netflix and Amazon are creating shows that rival—and in a lot of cases, out do—network shows. And there are a lot of other streaming services available now, all of which offer an extensive library of television on demand to choose from.

Network television and cable television providers are getting in on the act as well. According to info from DirecTV, they provide apps to their customers who might want to watch their subscription packages from tablets or phones.

So, since you can watch whatever you want from wherever you want, what are we actually choosing to view?

You’d think it would be just the comic fan boys who flock to these channels, especially with the slick tech involved and more and more networks and entertainment companies jumping on the overcrowded superhero bandwagon. Marvel’s Agents of Shield may get its first official spinoff, its Agent Carter mini-series was (fairly) well received, and Netflix’s new Daredevil series has been getting fantastic reviews. Movie studios are practically backing up Brinks trucks to continue funding the hugely popular Avengers, Star Trek and Star Wars franchise expansions, and DC Comics seems to be finally getting their movie universe in order.

But it isn’t just fan boys who are hopping all over the latest mobile media—it’s also sports fans. Games are scheduled all times of day and night (I’m looking at you MLB), and us diehards are going to find a way to stream these live events any way we can, to wherever we are. It’s the best, and sometimes only, way for us fans to keep up with our teams—especially if you move out of town.

So is this a good thing? Is being able to tap in to our favorite shows, movies and sports events whenever and wherever we like really helping us? Or is it doing more harm than good? A recent study out of Japan shows that watching too much television can alter the brain in negative ways, particularly among children.

Reading a novel, on the other hand, causes positive changes in the brain. Other experts say whether or not watching TV and movies is detrimental depends on what you’re watching. (Think “Birdman” vs “The Human Centipede”) But TV can also be a form of passive learning, so if you’re watching things that stimulate your brain (an exciting playoff game maybe), and encourage critical thinking (second guessing the coach’s decision to throw that pass on the 1-yard line), it might not be all bad.

Sure, making TV and movies easily available on demand might have a detrimental effect in that it distracts us from other pursuits that might better help our brains—like reading, spending time outside, exercising, etc. But doesn’t the portability of television and movies make us more likely to get up and move around since we can take those things with us wherever we go? Without turning into a potato just lying on the couch? Only time will tell. In the meantime, what do you want to watch today?

The post Television On Demand and On the Go: Miracle or Menace? appeared first on The Bachelor Guy.


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