People have near limitless options for what to watch on tv, and still complain

Submitted ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca⁩ to ⁨showerthoughts@lemmy.world⁩

There was a time when people didn’t have a choice for what they watched on tv. They had to watch whatever was on or nothing. Now you can watch almost anything. Some things you can only watch if you’re willing to pay for it but still, you have a lot of options. You have endless options, more than you probably have time to watch. And yet there are still people who throw a fit that shows and movies are made that don’t appeal to them. It’s so easy to not watch the thing you dislike and pick something else, but some people still want everything made with them in mind. Some people are never happy with anything they watch.

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lime@feddit.nl ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Quantity ≠ quality. There’s also the phenomenon of overchoice, where having too many options leads to becoming overwhelmed and delaying/avoiding making decisions altogether.

Instead of endlessly listing through unfamiliar things to watch, ask for recommendations based on things you like or from others who share your tastes.

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Thedogdrinkscoffee@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Near limitless options of what other want to show you, not what you want to watch.

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reddig33@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
People were complaining back in the days of cable about the same thing. And they weren’t wrong. Bruce Springsteen even wrote a song about it at the time called “57 channels and nothing on.”

Quantity is not the same thing as quality. The ratio of slop to programming worth watching has probably remained consistent. I’d argue it might’ve even gotten worse just in the last couple of years. Cheap reality programming and endless spin offs and reboots are not helping.

Its interesting that YouTube is starting to dominate. Its become the “build your own cable” bundle that people have longed for since cable came on the scene. You can bring back MTV, E!, CNN, TMC, USA, the original TLC, and PBS all from one provider! Old movies, music, educational programming, foreign programming, stuff that isn’t on the streaming channels because no one wants to pay residuals. Its’ all there ready for you to pick out of the giant hat.

Meanwhile the actual cable networks died because they stopped offering channels catered to specific content like news, sports, music, scifi, etc. SyFi became the WWE channel. News channels became propaganda and opinion. Sports channels became talking heads simply talking about sports instead of showing it.

Streaming is starting to suffer the same fate. They put content back into the “vault” never to be seen again. Replaced by throwing cheap reality programming onto channels like HBO. Classic movie channels show VHS fare like Home Alone and DieHard instead of Citizen Kane and Bringing Up Baby. They merge everything back into cable networks more interested in showing infomercials than actual programming.

So no, streamers actually suck right now. I’d argue even prestige shows like “The Pitt” are just what we used to have on broadcast networks for free (The Pitt is just the everything but the name sequel to former broadcast prestige hit ER).

I blame the FTC for allowing every studio to swallow up every network and then merge into just a handful of companies after that. There’s no real competition or independent voices — just vertical integration. Which is exactly what happened with cable.

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Kolanaki@pawb.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
There are near limitless grains of sand. Why are none of them entertaining you?

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TrickDacy@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
The bit about people “throwing a fit” seems like a clue that you’re exaggerating and judging people as being wrong without getting what they’re saying. Because it’s pretty obvious that this is both the best and worst time for television. Best because there’s more good stuff than ever by a lot. Worst because who has time to sort through hundreds of shows that mostly either suck or aren’t to your taste?

I’ve been recommended several shows that I deeply disliked, so it’s not like just because there’s so many options, you can just randomly turn something on and you’ll love it, as this argument seems to suggest is likely. The only real complaint here is that there’s too much crap to sort through and it’s a valid complaint. But honestly I don’t see a lot of people complaining about that. It’s mostly about cancellations or writing being bad. Which making a huge quantity certainly doesn’t help with.

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Tarogar@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
There are likely millions of YouTube channels that have content. None of which I want to watch because it’s in a language I can’t understand, badly produced, propaganda, slop or simply a topic I don’t care for. Like widening drill holes, it’s just boring.

So yeah, we live in a future with millions of channels and nothing to watch. Literally.

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kepix@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
you need to understand, that most people just open an app and want to watch something random. the apps dont recommend good content, they recommend their own stuff that needs more views to please the shareholders.

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Cherry@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
As someone else has said quantity does not equal quality.

The lower every point of publishing and production has resulted in everyone and their dog making movies and shows.

IMO process has been diluted and proper writing and storytelling is often either overlooked or obscurely overdone.

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EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
It can still be tricky if you are a sports fan

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- jasoman@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Sorry you 5 miles to close to a 2 hour drive.
  
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deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
They’ll complain, then just watch crap anyway.

All the while ignoring the option of doing anything else.

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cadekat@pawb.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
I’d like to watch Arcane, Wheel of Time, and Lower Decks, to name a few.

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