[mythtv-users] Chris Isaak

[James Crow]

On Fri, 2009-02-27 at 12:12 -0500, jarpublic at gmail.com wrote:
> I posted this story last month. There is length discussion in this
> thread: http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/366076.
> 
> I don't know anything about the validity of the research but they are
> not claiming that people like commercials. Nor are they showing the
> head banging phenomenon nicely summarized above. It is more like the
> phenomenon you experience when eating a bowl of ice cream. The bites
> later on are not nearly as enjoyable as the first bites. But if you
> take a break and come back to your ice cream you can regain some of
> that initial enjoyment, improving the overall experience. Whether we
> realize it or not we don't get as much enjoyment out of a show by
> watching it straight through as we do by watching it with
> interruptions. They showed that it wasn't anything special about the
> commercials. They performed the study again but just had the show
> switch to a different show during the breaks (channel surfing) and
> they had similar outcome. I rarely sit and just watch TV and do
> nothing else anymore. I am almost always multitasking. I wonder what
> that does?


Its just like smoking crack. The first hit is the best. After the first
one you have to wait some amount of time to try to regain the enjoyment
of the first one.

I think what they are saying is that by interrupting the enjoyment (tv
show) it heightens the anticipation of its return. Whether that
heightened enjoyment is worth the time trade off is debatable.

Cheers,
James