Marksonland

When I was in college and my friends and I wanted to make fun of some condescending intellectual type, one of us would put on our best faux-British accent and mockingly say something like "I rarely watch TV and when I do it's usually Masterpiece theater." (Side note: I think we stole this line from SNL or something like that). Anyway, fast forward 20 years later and, my previous blog post notwithstanding, I am starting to wonder if this is actually starting to become true...well, the rarely part, not the Masterpiece theater part.

Last year I was at a trade show and someone pointed out the irony of how they spent thousands of dollars on a flat screen TV that ends of being backlighting for his much cheaper lap-top. Perhaps it i just my waning interest in televised sports combined with less than compelling summer TV fair, but as I type this post with my expensive backlighting shining against my Mac, that irony is not lost on me.

Anyway, this whole dynamic has me thinking about paid content - not the site, but the content I actually pay for. This content comes primarily in two forms: my cable and my satellite radio. The former I kind of looked at as a utility and the latter I purchased so not to miss the antics of Howard Stern during my long commute. But now I am starting to re-think both. TV I've touched on - and well, Howard takes way too many vacations. SO I'm starting to wonder - do I need paid content in my life?

When my parents wanted to punish us growing up, they would take away TV for a week/month/etc. Seems to me that that probably doesn't work anymore. I'm guessing that now parents need to stay on top of their kids online activities (Facebook, MySpace, Club Penguin, etc.) just so they know what to take away when disciplining their children....