#bingewatchingtv

  By: Patrícia Weiss *

Who doesn’t remember, or at least heard about the Sunday nights in the 70s and 80s in Brazil, when punctually at 7pm the hilarious adventures led by the Brazilian Anti-Hero Didi Mocó began on GloboTV, local main open TV network, making children and families laugh? When Didi called us with great intimacy “Ô Psit?” (Hey, you?) and “Ô da poltrona?” (Hey you on the armchair?) he seemed to be sure that we were there, excited and glued to the TV screen. And we were. Only during the commercial breaks something else could distract us, but when it was about to finish, we rushed back to the front of the TV. Did I go back too far in time? Please bare with me a little longer.

When the TV used to “control” our time, we could say that it was the glorious period of Brazilian television. The distant era of the control over the audience’s time and what was screened on TV. A period of full control over what time the audience would watch TV and what was available to see. Nowadays, it is getting harder and harder to know where, when and how the audience will watch its favorite program.

The world has been reset: the Futurism was turned into Presentism.                                                 

After all, what is happening with the world today? Did we become obsessed digital technology zombies? Has the technology taken over the earth and it’s dominating our lives? No. But it seems like email is a thing of the past as no one has time or patience to read a text that exceeds 140 characters and even less to reply to it. Just like we do no longer tolerate commercial breaks on TV and in the web, we simply skip the ads as we consider them an intrusive interruption of our time.

Our relationship with time suffered a deep transformation in the past four decades. We are immediatists, we are always in a hurry, we are impatient and disperse. Everything around us, be it in the society, in the worldwide culture, in economics  and politics, in corporations, in doing business and in the way we relate to each other has changed. We live a contemporary reality correctly predicted by George Orwell in his latest novel, “1984”, published in 1949, where the central character, Winston, lived imprisoned in a totalitarian society completely dominated by the state, where everything was done collectively but each one lived alone. And around it, in the story, there was the intense surveillance of the emblematic “Big Brother” character, a personification  of power.

A long time ago, Alvin Toffler, Marshall McLuhan, William Gibson, Pierre Levy and other wise philosophers and futurists could already foresee the futurism of broad social changes in people’s lives. Today we can find lots of books covering this, but I’d like to mention a very thought-provoking Douglas Rushkoff’s new book “PRESENT SHOCK: When Everything Happens Now”, where the great social theorist introduces the phenomenon of Presentism. A future that is our present.

  For example, in Toffler’s “Future Shock”, released in 1970, a number of predictions about the future made people shudder at that time, but were materialized over the years. We would live such an accelerated flow of changes, that it would impact the way we feel the time, causing a radical change in the pace of everyday life, affecting the way we experience the world around us. People and institutions would have difficulty in dealing with this speed, everyone would feel compelled to give immediate answers and would get confused when making decisions - and would suffer a lot because of it. We would feel disorientated with this fast pace and most things would become temporary and easily discharged. Even animal cloning could  happen, according to the futurist author.

Alvin Toffler knew that new technologies would never emerge alone in the future. It would be a package of technological change, followed by social, political and cultural changes. The family structure would be affected by it with the expansion of the computers. Women would leave home to go to work and would fight for their recognition in the society. Families were to become smaller and would evolve and change.     

After all, the world was speeding up, was becoming decentralized and was growing rapidly. And the values and the concepts of the society were too.

Barack Obama, privacy and George Orwell.                                               

Forty years ago, e.g., the current U.S. president, Barack Obama, was growing up in Hawaii, surrounded by a large and deep-rooted racial prejudice - an “absolute truth” established as reality by the majority of the population. Today, forty years later, this absolute truth and absurd became the opinion of a minority.                              

Thankfully, not everything is so shocking and scary in the Presentism we live in today.                                     

I am impressed with people’s angry here and scary reaction at Obama’s speech about how no one has security and privacy nowadays. It isn’t about George Orwell‘s “Big Brother”, as I mentioned here before. The society became a giant “Big Brother”.

And social networks are not responsible for it. We are also responsible for such feeling of vulnerability and lack of privacy that we all complain so much about. We are not the victims. Has anyone ever forced you to “check-in” on Foursquare as soon as you arrive at work or at a nightclub?                

It makes me remember about a stretch of a column of the provocative and ironic brazilian philosopher Luiz Felipe Pondé (Folha de São Paulo newspaper on 07.22.13) which is, in my opinion, a powerful interpreter of the contemporary era, the current invasion of privacy, Barack Obama, and the social networks:

"…for a lot less, we keep monitoring the fridge to see how many yogurts we have, the kitchen cabinets, the cleaning ladies’ bags to see if they are not taking away a packet of meat…cellphones warn us about our account or credit card transactions, all very convenient, isn’t it? “

The present times are of Hyperconsumism and Hypermedia, built on the abundance of information, images, brands, variety of products, restaurants, festivals, music, movies and facts that can be found anywhere and at any time. Never before has the consumer had so much at their disposal and with such conviction that they can choose whatever they want, at the time they want, as many times they want, anywhere. And, of course, ensuring that everyone knows about it. Our way of multi-tasking intensified.

We are spectators that participate and produce in the “Society of the Spectacle”. Live. Now. In real time.

There is a wide hyper-individualization that configures in how we are closing ourselves up less to the world, while our connection to the larger world, only increases. Today, the more the cultures are approaching each other, more the dynamic of pluralization, heterogenization and the social diversity develops.     

This strongly affects the way we relate to distance and time.

The earth has never been so small. Major historical or sports events are seen live, as a linear content. Everyone can have immediate access to images. Facts are transmitted and amplified in a disorderly way, not linear. News are often reproduced by the audience and are spread around the world across the networked culture within seconds. 

Fans of TV series can no longer wait for a week to see the next episode. The contemporary anxiety naturally provokes and intensifies piracy in various segments of the cultural industry.              

Everyone has immediate access to images and information from all around the world. In a global culture of time compression and reduced size of space, the “local” is connected to the “global”.                      

An intense feeling of immediatism and simultaneity allow individuals that are far away to share the same information, the same experience, everywhere. And in real time. Because no one wants to feel left out or behind on what is happening right now.

The expression “Ô da poltrona?” (Hey you on the armchair?) is really something of the past, we continue to watch TV and we are increasingly connected.

But the time control was transferred to us. And we haven’t swapped the big screen for a smaller screen in Brazil. We added them both. Because it is absolutely human to see, enjoy, disagree, comment, socialize and share - something that is as old as we are.

The difference is that the technology has enriched the experience of watching TV, making it more fun, transforming it into a real-time experience of doing several other things at the same time. It is amazing to surf the web, post, comment, tweet and browse while we see our favorite show. The connection to the world has improved and the feeling of being tuned in on everything and be an insider is good, very good. No risk of being caught off guard  by someone who has the details of the week’s episode at the time it is screened.                            

Actually the current use of social networking helps the audience to return to TV.       

SocialTV: The TV recreates itself and tries to get out of the box.       

The technologic and social behavior revolution continues. The reinvention of the business and the concept of TV is happening quickly outside Brazil. The “Consumer Cord-Cutting” fact is a real threat to cable TV in US, but hasn’t been yet significant. Cable TV subscribers are cancelling their subscription and moving to AppleTV, Google, Amazon, Hulu, Netflix, HBO Go, who offer their programs via streaming. A move that seems to be natural and reflects the contemporary society who now lives the freedom of the remote control and the TV program schedule. Going beyond the TV unit.

It is the freedom of the choice of program, content and entertainment. It is not a choice of screen, platform or media.    

As well as other behavioral phenomenon called "Binge Watching TV".

As mankind  is in a hurry, is anxious, increasingly insatiable and wants everything immediately, because we know we can have it, we literally “dive” and overindulge. In the same way we do by devouring at once a giant pot of ice cream, an entire chocolate cake or a bottle  of whisky, we would watch thirteen chapters of the first season of “House of Cards” and “Orange is the New Black” in one go, without stopping, in one weekend  and as often as we want.

According to the anthropologist Grant McCracken, (must read his article on wired here) this is happening because “We binge on TV for the same reason we binge on food. For a sense of security, creature comfort, to make the world go away.”

People are creating space and time that is parallel to their everyday reality, feeling comfort and distance, at least for a while. Both in life and when watching TV. The big move made by the current leader Netflix to shake up the market and overcome HBO’s million subscribers, was inspired by people behavior, by  tuning the service and content with the audience in the contemporary human way of watching TV. Netflix funded the production of three original series and released the first season to subscribers at once. 

The future of the traditional TV has arrived and will continue to evolve, even if it takes a while.

Netflix’s competitors around the world are powerful gladiators - in producing original and exceptional content (HBO), as well as in technological innovations, through their attempt to reach and capture the audience.

An audience with a lot of power.

*Patrícia Weiss is a Brand Strategy Consultant of Brand Culture, Branded Entertainment & Transmedia Strategy and Chief Strategy Officer at Wanted Agency Brazil   [email protected] @PWEISSbr  http://br.linkedin.com/pub/patricia-weiss/64/a86/7a1/