sinéad's lifestream

There was a story online today that pointed out a rise in simultaneous television viewing and internet usage in the US. I must admit this didn’t surprise me as I often witness both of my younger siblings stretched out on the couches at home with their netbooks and the remote control. They’re passively consuming two forms of media at once – clearly neither is interesting enough to encompass their full interest, but TV has always been considered a passive form of media and multitasking on a computer isn’t a new phenomena. However, I do wonder if this increasing trend has anything to do with the lowering quality of TV shows, reality TV doesn’t really require concentration to follow a plot line, if there is one.

My own relationship with TV has dramatically changed these last few years. Thanks to technology I now have the ability to set aside one evening a week to sit down and watch a few hours of selected TV shows (mostly American imports). I would very rarely sit down in front of the TV and just flick through the channels searching for something to watch, invariably there isn’t anything on that interests me. Instead I choose to sit at my computer, engaging fully with online media, creating content and absorbing information.

The downside of this setup is that I miss out on those opportunistic TV nuggets – those wonderful documentaries on completely random topics that are incredibly interesting but contain sets of knowledge that I would never have actively sought out by myself.

How did David Blaine hold his breath for 17 minutes? Why is sustainable fishing so important? How has cricket changed India? What does open data mean for the web? What’s it like to treat a patient on top of Mount Everest? How can gamers change the world?

These are all questions I’ve had answered without asking them via the Ted Talks video podcast available through iTunes. A new video becomes available approximately every two days and they’re never any longer than about 20 minutes, so they’re perfect for a bus journey or lunchtime viewing. Obviously the Ted website has been uploading new Ted talks for a long time now, the difference with subscribing to the podcast is that you are treated to topics from a massive range of different Ted conferences. Subscribing means you’re stopping yourself from picking and choosing what you’re going to watch, thus you open yourself up to a far richer learning (and entertaining) experience.

Everyone talks about “information overload” and the noise created online, but when you use tools like I do to filter everything (the same way I filter my TV viewing) you miss out on learning about topics outside of your comfort zone. It’s important to step outside of this zone because the more information you have about the world outside of your bubble the greater your ability to understand that world and your impact upon it. It can also inspire your creativity and perhaps pique an interest in you that you never realised you had.