metrics

topic 00049
a mash-up of television & cooperation

A number of years ago we were one of those families who helped decide what television shows lived or died. Sure, it was just one little vote in a vast sea opinions. But each night we’d plug our little electronic monitors into their phone-terminals and they would transmit our day’s watching habits back to the ratings mother-ship to be added to the collection of metrics.

We stopped participating because it was a hassle. Yet, it occurs to me again that not only would my participation in such an ongoing data gathering exercise be virtually worthless, but also that the time we spend watching our screens today is gathering that exact data (and likely so much more) without the need to wear a little electronic gadget on my belt.

It has probably occurred to nearly everyone who subscribes to streaming media services (such as Netflix) that someone or something cares about what we watch. My role in this process is little more than that of a consumer –or perhaps, a data point– yet I think it would be naive to assume that the metrics that I leave in my wake from what I watch, when I watch, and the exact point when I stop watching whatever it was I was watching, that these data are ignored by the corporation serving me that content.

( keep reading … )