In the streaming era, we have been given the ability to watch an entire season of a TV series in one sitting, with an uninterrupted flow. We can pick exactly what we want to watch, no matter how niche our taste is. And even if we do encounter an occasional ad, these ads will be personalized and curated for exactly what we want (and even what we don’t know we want). This regulation of this flow that we experience was not always so personalized though, and if you choose to dust off your TV and find your old cable adapter, you can experience the more rigid and calculated flow that is… CABLE TELEVISION (ominous music playing). Whether it’s a TV show, an advertisement, or the news, every second of cable television is curated for a target demographic. These target demographics vary depending on the time, the day of the week, the channel, and other analytics that the TV company receives.
For example, if you turn on CBS at 2:00 PM on a Monday you might catch an episode of The Ellen Show and see ads for Northwestern Mutual or some medication (generally targeted towards an older demographic).
But if you turned on the same channel at 2:00 PM on a Sunday, you would probably tune in to the middle of an NFL football game and see ads for a Ford F-150 or Lowes (generally targeted towards middle aged men).
Growing up, this television flow was a crucial part of how I enjoyed media. The ads that I would watch on Adult Swim late at night were almost as funny as the actual shows. And I didn’t really care what episode of South Park I watched, as long as they showed me one. But now the responsibility is completely on us. We can watch whatever we want, wherever we want, and whenever we want. Ads are almost unbearable now, even seeing a 15 second ad at the beginning of a youtube video will make me go download an adblocker. Even when I do encounter an ad, I can just tune out and go on my phone, which in turn becomes a part of my flow.
Generally, I think that this individual autonomous flow is a good thing because it allows us to pick exactly the type of flow that we want to experience at any given moment; especially those who have more niche interests that don’t necessarily fit into the “dominant” demographic targeted by TV companies. But with this freedom comes a challenge: people are very bad at making choices for themselves. Thankfully our algorithms know us well and will direct us to the new hit Netflix show at the click of a button. As the years go by, it will be interesting to see how much more personalized our flow gets and how it affects our relationship with media.
