It’s mental that there is so much content in the world, there was once a part in Dara O’Brein’s stand-up routine were he talked about how he once had a night free, free from work, from his wife and has child, and he wanted to play music… then watch a film… then read a book… then play a video game… and ended up watching the last half of Robocop. This is an experience I’m sure most of us suffer at times. But I think because there is genuinely so much content and literally so much to do and learn, it has become a detriment to peoples live.
What on earth am I talking about? Well basically it’s like this, I’ll use an example of television series. I watch Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and The Next Generation almost religiously. I’ve seen all seven series of both so much that these days, even my not persistent self can recognise an episode by its title. A big feat for me. And I continue to want to watch more television series, I’d like to try and watch Voyager again, but I’d also like to watch Hero’s, Prison Break, Boardwalk Empire, and other series that have a really high acclaim. But for me the investment I’d have to make in that is huge. Not financially, as fantastical as it sounds I have a loose weave method of thinking when it comes to consumption. I however am a lot more rigid when it comes to emotional attachment.
And when it comes to long series with lots of episode’s that is what tends to put me off, to start watching say, Dexter from the beginning, that would mean 8 series and 96 episodes… Not a massive undertaking, but there lies my dilemma, and the initial point of writing this… while watching one of those 96 episodes, I could be in fact, watching an episode of Game of Thrones… Or watching a documentary, which was my initial plan for tonight, before I thought about playing Assassins Creed…and after I decided I was going to spend the rest of my night reading.
It seems that with so much consumption available and at times at such a cheap price, you can really be at a loss for what to do and at what time. And I've found that once you've made a decision on what your actually going to do, you become at odds with yourself again by having to choose exactly what you want to so within that decision. I go walking sometimes and I decide while I’m walking I’m going to listen to music. But I never know what to listen to, usually my initial thought is to listen to something up beat while I’m walking, but as I finally choose my favorite pop-punk albums, I decide that maybe this walk would be the perfect time for masterful Prog… while at the back of my mind I believe that while you’re walking, there is no better time to listen to some brutal metal.
Maybe the answer to this is just planning and scheduling, and I can do that to a degree. I plan to get up for work, I manage it. I plan to schedule plans with my friends and meet them. On my days off I decide and plan to go round town and look for stuff I need… but when it comes to actually investing myself in something it becomes a lot harder. And another thing, how stupid is it and how hard would it be to enjoy something that’s scheduled in? In uni every Sunday morning when I woke up and Wednesday before my lecturers I used to watch a film, every week without fail. But that wasn’t so much scheduling as it was enjoyment. Back then I watched a film by day, did my uni work and then at night played a game and probably watched an episode of a tv series I was watching, so since the period I am talking about three years ago the availability to watching and consume has bettered itself and upgraded the viewing experience.
So I think maybe the solution is just moderation, actually committing yourself to something, I have for example committed myself to watching Game of Thrones, and home to get through it… I have however, already developed an interest in America and have a string urge to drop everything and begin reading and writing about America again… which will with no doubt end up with me watching documentaries by Michael Moore, or Errol Morris… or some other liberal like that. And so the endless circle of not doing anything new or constructive repeats.
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