Last evening I watched Episode #2 (The Two Towers) from Lord of the Rings on TV. I had seen it in theater when it first came out and own the DVDs but, decided I could see it and read my book, since I pretty much knew how it was going. The too-frequent interruptions is a reason I so rarely watch commercial TV. There are few memorable ads, while an ad ,ay be clever, I usually miss the product. Few deserve the time to watch, and none more than once. They are foolish enough to give warning that the ads are on when engineers raise the gain and the ad comes booming, shattering eardrums like fingernails on the blackboard, amputating the mood the movie had engendered. I can't reach for the mute button fast enough! My peripheral vision tells me when the movie is back on to regain sound. Instead of turning me into a consumer of whatever is being advertised, they have driven me away.
I'm guessing station managers are fooled by the number of viewers of a program. When a program is good it will draw lots of people. However, the stupid producers make listeners get into a competition. Rather than staggering the good shows, the stations tend to put the good ones on at the same time. Thus shows that would draw a huge audience have to share it, each getting lower numbers, thus less advertising pull.
Cable companies do not make it easy to record shows for future viewing if you don't rent their recorder. This assures that you cannot turn it into a DVD, but assumes that you will watch it in the near future, which for me is unlikely. If I can't see a show when it is on, I now know not to record it because I will never find the time to watch it and am less likely to fast forward the commercials to do so. I am forced to choose as though I am looking at a restaurant menu...I can have one entree only! If I make the wrong choice, I have to 'suck it up', or put more delicately, I have to 'eat it'.
Telemarketers are just as bad. Charities, allowed to ignore the 'do not call' list, are also losing money and wasting my time by their tactics. Today, on a phone call with a friend, I was interrupted by another call...'callus interruptus' as my son and wife would say. Telemarketers give themselves away because they pause a long time before saying hello. When someone answered my repeated 'hello' I realized it was a telemarketer. I said, "I have someone on the line, is this an important call?" The person identified himself as calling from one of the leading medical charities. I interrupted him immediately and said you are gong to ask me for money, aren't you? Well, you aren't going to get any from me today as I was interrupted me on a call. Could you call back another time?" He didn't accept that and began to read his spiel. At this point I simply said, "You interrupted my call and aren't listening to me. Call me another time." ...and I hung up on him. I am not without empathy for the people who have to call and beg for money but when will they realize they do not have a taker on the line and are also wasting their own time?
Caller ID helps make this a bit more tolerable because I can ignore some calls. When they do not list the number, I know not to answer the call. (Another stupid move on their part.) As I grow older and have less time left to waste, these issues take on greater importance to me. My computer privacy is violated with adbots tracking where I go, what I buy, and what pop-ups with which to try to blind and bind me. It eats up time just to clean them off the computer periodically, knowing that they will be back each time I glance at commercial sites.
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