My life shifted in 1999.
That was the year TiVo launched the world’s first DVR.
Prior to the release of TiVo, all of my TV entertainment was confined to specific boundaries. Like everyone else, I had to be available on the specific day at the specific time and have specific access in order to participate.
I didn’t even realize how tiring and frustrating it was. And then TiVo descended like an angel from heaven (for $14.99 per month).
It gave me freedom.
It was a freedom I didn’t know I was missing and I didn’t realize I needed. But I was and I did.
The DVR allowed me to perform the same TV-watching behavior I was doing previously, but now it was on my time, at my pace, with less pressure.
I no longer had to meet entertainment’s schedule. Entertainment got shifted to meet my schedule.
I was happy to pay more for that freedom.
The freedom of choice is more important than the cost to have that choice.
In the end, I began watching more tv than before.
I wasn’t alone.
A 2011 study by the Leichtman Research Group found that DVRs led to a 25% increase in the amount of time people spent watching TV shows. Nielsen did a similar study and got similar results, which is a nice confirmation of the seemingly obvious.
Increased freedom actually increased the behavior.
The shift was on.
Virtual Learning
It was brutal.
I am still scarred from those winter walks to my early morning math class. I’d have to drag myself out of my cozy warm bed and trudge across campus through 8-foot snow drifts and a biting wind that froze my spine with sub-zero temperatures.
I feared that in my fatigue I’d fall into a snowdrift and freeze to death, not to be discovered until the May thaw like some long lost caveman.