Life after DVR

I knew that having a DVR would change how I watched television; I just didn’t realize it would—not to sound too dramatic—change my life as well.

For instance, people who don’t have DVRs or Tivos think that having one will make them watch MORE TV. I find that to be untrue. When shows are recorded, you only watch the shows that you like. You don’t waste time channel surfing. And best of all, you don’t waste time on commercials. (Frank thinks this is traitor-like of me since I used to work in advertising. I don’t care; I love fast fowarding through them!)

I don’t have to race home so that I don’t miss a show. I remember a friend telling me about how she and her boyfriend were out and about on a Sunday night and it was the season premiere of Sex and the City. They weren’t going to make it home in time so they actually stopped at a hotel that had free HBO, got a room and watched it! They would have saved a lot of money if they had DVRs back then.

When I was going through Catholic classes, I chose the church I went to based on the fact that they had Tuesday night classes. The one closer to my house had Thursday night classes which meant I would have to miss Friends!

There are also some side effects to having a DVR. Are they good or bad? You decide:

It’s pretty much impossible to watch TV in real time ever again: First of all, you realize that there’s never actually anything on. It’s either crap or commercials. It’s so frustrating. So I guess this side effect could be classified as “decreased attention span.”

You never know what night of the week a show is on. This is especially true if you live in Eastern Time. We don’t watch shows the night they air because they start too late. So we just go to the DVR and say, “What do we have?” That also makes us a little behind on stuff so we have to watch out for spoilers.

You want to rewind everything! When you’re watching a show on the DVR and you miss something, you just hit the little rewind button that takes it back about ten seconds. I find myself wanting to rewind the radio and even in-person conversations!

I hope you enjoyed my DVR analysis on this Thursday, a night which used to be known for “Must-See-TV.” Now Thursday doesn’t own me. I’m going out tonight and I’m not gonna miss a thing!