Tuesday, August 08, 2006

A most unhelpful article

Slate tries to explain why I don't have a Mac TV in my living room: "most homes are consolidating around a two-hub model. A PC (or Mac) with some multimedia features anchors the home office, while a TV with some computerized gear—think TiVo, not desktop computer—owns the living room. Tech marketers talk about the '2-foot interface' of the PC versus the '10-foot interface' of the TV. When you use a computer, you want to lean forward and engage with the thing, typing and clicking and multitasking. When you watch Lost, you want to sit back and put your feet up on the couch."

I first heard that reasoning 8 years ago and I still don't think it's quite right. Don't Slate writers have laptops or iPods? Aren't they--hey, what's this? Boxers. In the cushions of my Barcalounger. Huh. What was I talking about? Right. I don't always use my computer like a workstation, I don't always watch TV passively and Slate's article just didn't seem all that informative.

1 comment:

Irene Done said...

Yeah, I think those cues are not so separate for more and more people. If you're a fan of live-blogging, for instance, an all-in-one Mac-TV would be, like, I dunno, heaven? And OMG! Now that I think about it, how can you NOT watch American Idol without emailing 5-10 of your closest personal friends with instant commentary? See, it's de-chilling THRU multi-tasking. Is this just me? Am I unwell? Do I need to find the owner of those boxers and start a life/family? Oh holy Moses. I think not.