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“Freedom of choice is what you’ve got. Freedom from choice is what you want. Eloquent lyrics from 30+ years ago by Mark Mothersbaugh of DEVO, but scarcely understood by my pre-pubescent self at the time. Granted, I know what it means NOW, but it did take a few years. I can even recall a Sunday sermon by a firebrand Monsignor at our church invoking this trope (which is, as most things, older than I thought.) I’ve encountered various incarnations of it over the years (laboring over ice cream decision at 31 Flavors, spending several minutes selecting “just the right lime” in the produce section, etc. But only recently has it begun to really hit home.
In the age of itunes, TiVo, BitTorrent, Google Books, etc. we are literally living in an era where just about ANY form of recorded entertainment is avilable to us instantly (or nearly instantly) with just a few clicks. We have, essentially, unlimited Freedom of Choice. The net result of all this technology ought to be “we’re super happy because we’re watching all our favorite movies, listening to all our favorite songs, reading all our favorite books 24 hours a day, in stereo.”
But we’re not. At least I’m not.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. It seems fundamentally against human nature for anyone to vote to LIMIT their personal choices. The problem is, the age-old question of “what am I in the mood for?”
What Am I In The Mood For?
Hell if I know. In terms of music, I can think of literally ANY song I have ever heard, and be listening to it within about 30 seconds. My iPod has about 2,000 songs on it, and it’s now an actual exercise to even THINK of anything new to download. To be sure, my personal mental repository of “songs I like” undoubtedly includes more songs than that, but the problem is: how do I even remember them? Much like “going grocery shopping while you’re hungry” is advised against, so too should be “downloading music on a whim.” Granted, much like a “Wikipedia Journey” it can result in some new discoveries, it can also become a real problem, as I’ve likely by this time forgotten what songs I like.
Same goes for movies. I literally have to rack my brain to come up with new movies to acquire. Part of this stems from “wasted bandwidth guilt” which may only apply to a certain percent of the population. But another part stems from “sheesh…what movies do I like? Could I even make a list, off the top of my head? Surely I’d miss some.”
This all strikes me as a symptom of the entertainment industry at large shifting from a “push” model to a “pull” model. Without getting too brainiac on it, it’s basically “on demand” versus “available now.” The net result is “anything you want, whenever you want it.” The problem is, we rarely know what we want. Thus the concept of “cravings” has, in my mind, become much more embraced these days. I’m actually delighted when a particular craving hits me, because unlike it’s original meaning (“an itch in search of a scratch,” so to speak) it becomes “a specific itch which gives purpose to my ‘unlimited scratching machine’ which has gone unused.
While doing some homework for this, I came across a similar-themed (though mercifully more concise) blog entry on the same topic from earlier this year. I thought it fitting to give him a link. They take it a step further and discovers that people actually prefer having fewer choices. As someone who grew up in the era of “6 channels and nothing’s on, but we’ll take whatever we can get” I can definitely get behind this concept. Just like our parents warned us: “if you got everything you wanted for Christmas, you’d have nothing to look forward to.” Here we are. I have (access to) everything I want. Now I’m forced to ask other people what exactly it is I want.
