Media: LA Times presents the Social Phenomenon that is the TV Remote

"Revolution by remote" by Bob Baker of the LA Times asks how we felt about the 'blur of endless, unconnected dispatches' that made up the war coverage recently. Then he tells the story of the TV remote control, from inception to impact - accounting for the fast, choppy nature of much television through an analysis of viewing habits.

This is a delightful feature full of social history, and reveals again the interplay between the social and the technical in the development of the world we know.

It's also funny, and the detail about how viewers use the remote is thought-provoking: 'A fifth of all viewers are believed to switch channels during any half hour. Like the crowd in any bar, flippers range from conservative to promiscuous (the average one fashions a personal network of about 13 channels), but younger viewers and males tend to be the most active. Among viewers who switched channels during prime time, 20% of the male viewers switched six or more times during an evening, while only 11% of channel-switching women changed that frequently.'

Maybe it is all about to change with devices like TIVO allowing scheduling of your choice, but that's still the future...

Associated Link: LA Times: Revolution by remote

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