• by Amanda , February 21, 2007

I haven’t watched daytime television since middle school—and that was only because I was pretending to be sick to miss school. Since then, work, school and meetings block themselves into my agenda daily and I am lucky to be home before 8:00 at night. But last week, and amazing thing happened—Ball State closed for two days! Classes, work, meetings—ALL canceled. Now, having attended a school on this campus before attending the university, I haven’t had a snow day in 7 years. I was ecstatic. That is, until I actually sat down with my roomies and tried to stomach an afternoon full of “Judge (fill in the blanks)”, smutty talk shows, and infomercials. We were BORED! Even back episodes of “House” on DVD became tedious. It would have been the perfect time to catch up on shows I’d missed throughout the week; it would have been the perfect time to own a DVR.

As a college student, my disposable income is poured into buying Starbucks every once in a while. Needless to say I am not in a position currently to deal with “season passes” or costly recording equipment. If I were though, my TV changing habits would change almost completely.

My TV watching habits now consist of “This American Morning” before class and Food Network shows while making (a late) dinner. My favorite programs go largely unwatched. On a typical day I have 3-5 hours of class, work, and at least 4-5 hours of studying. Nightly meetings easily start after 9:00 and can run until midnight. This schedule offers little (NO) time for leisurely television watching. Even when my roommates and I do watch TV, open textbooks and note-taking dominate our attention. With a DVR, the few hours of free time allotted on the weekend could be filled with relaxed TV-time.

That is why I find it so surprising that media publications are filled with ominous articles about how DVR is the end to television advertising … the end of consumerism… the end of the world as we know it...

I disagree heartily.

For people like myself, TV advertising is completely ineffective because I am not exposed to it at all. If I want to watch a season of my favorite TV show, I wait until it comes out on DVD or reruns during the summer. I won’t lie and say that a DVR would make me watch these ads, but at least I would be exposed to them. As it stands now, the only recent ads I can recall are from the SuperBowl. So, until you advertisers can shut down universities so we can all watch TV, DVRs might actually be your best friends.