Scott Selliers
Jul 23, 2017 · 1 min read

With our oldest son, we had Noggin (and an accompanying cable package bill). With our youngest, we now have Netflix and Amazon Prime; being a given that we’d have the DSL bill already (and the Prime account for shipping), I’d say that the Netflix bill is a deal. But the difference is greater than mere price.

We watch absolutely no advertisements through our home’s one television, nor do we watch “news”. But more importantly, we don’t suffer exposure to the “turd buffet”: the phenomenon of deciding to sit down to watch television to “see what’s on”, only to choose the least crappy offering available at that time.

When we travel, we encounter broadcast television. My children are dismayed by what they call “old TV”. While the ads play a role in this, I feel that you miss the more beneficial aspect of internet streaming in your article: self-directed programming. When we go to the television/screens, we go to watch something in particular, almost always together. It’s never “I’m bored; let’s go see what’s on TV.” It’s always “Hey; wanna go watch The Great British Baking Show?” The difference, while seeming to be that of preference, really has deeper roots in epistemological self-determinism: we direct our attention intentionally towards only that in which we are interested.