People's TV habits

(Disclaimer: After I wrote this, I noticed there were more responses to the discussion board. Since I didn't see these before I finished writing, I only wrote about four people's opinions.)

I see that most people (Jacki, Aneshia, me) have a DVR, while Angie relies on Netflix.

As far as the writer's strike, three of us thought it greatly affected the content on the TV. A couple of people thought that dragged down the writing of Heroes and Lost. To me, I thought the first season of Heroes was compelling. The second season lost luster. The third season had a terrible first half (note to writers, never send your characters to Africa for an extended period) but I thought the second half of the third season recaptured the sense of pace and excitement that the first season of the show had. I got too busy to watch the fourth season. I don't think that writer's strike was the reason for Heroes degrading in quality. I just think they ran out of creative ideas. As for Lost, while I don't remember that point in the series well, I don't remember it being too much of a difference in quality overall to the series. Sorry if this response seems too long-winded, but at one time these were two of my favorite TV shows, so I have big opinions regarding them.

As far as how many hours we watched, a couple of us (Angie and me) could watch a bunch in short spurts and then not watch very much at other times. Jacki watched a lot of TV. Aneshia didn't watch much TV until bed.

I maintained that shows usually had a cliffhanger to encourage a person to watch commercials in order to get the next segment of show. Aneshia is not enthralled by commercials, using that time to do something else. Jacki and Angie are seeing ads embedded into sites like The NY Times and YouTube.

Angie solely uses Netflix as her TV, so everything she watches is online. I mostly use Netflix except for the occasional TV show. Jacki only watches online sparingly. Aneshia does not watch online.

I believe cable as we know it will become obsolete. Instead we'll opt for a selective channel system. Jacki theorizes that as video games become more mainstream, more channels dedicated to them will pop up. Angie believes that there are already too many choices, which can drive away people like her from the TV. Aneshia has no opinion.

I don't like reality TV and have a hard time seeing the appeal of it. Angie doesn't watch it, but can see the appeal. Jacki said that the genre is okay, but that they lack substance. Aneshia is the most devoted watcher of all of us, with the three shows she watches taking up Thursday night.