(1) Digilante Justice (2008) in The New Atlantis; (2) The Age of Ego-Casting (2005) in The New Atlantis
I was a Jew, but now I am a TiVo. I am the focal point of any living room. I just don’t leave. Why leave? I can’t imagine a world outside my box. A better world, anyway. I don’t connect you to your friends. I connect you to your fiction. I am so efficient, I store great shows like ER and House M.D. I am so smart. Practically a doctor myself! I make it easy to be lazy.
My best friend is iPod. He understands my boon to the world. He’s got one of his own. He’s providing millions of people billions of tracks of music. And they are eating it up like consumer sheep. He makes them happy, complacent in even the worst of DMV waits. iPod changes the way the world sounds. Birds chirping in the morning? Nope. Counting Crows. The book Silent Spring needs to be rewritten. The future is loud and pop-y. Music is not an event. It’s a lifestyle, and he’s happy to give it to you, over and above the natural doses.
You can’t live without your favorite shows. I can’t live without you. I was a TiVo, but now I am a TiVo online! With the computer replacing televsion, our keyboards become the remote control. What happens when I sometimes portrays real life and real people, affected by the buttons you push? Reporting of neighbors and strangers sometimes is harmless gossip, but as a TiVo, I can dabble in vigilance and vengeance and skip over commercials in the process. I can villify your enemies and with the help of iPod, we can do it to the beat of Jay-Z. What is the world except through me? I grant access to the real world with the artifice of a screen. I enable you to pour your judgement on to unsuspecting persons. They will thank you one day. You’re making the world a better place. In patenting the remote control, Adler said in his patent application: “It is highly desirable to provide a system to regulate the receiver operation without requiring the observer to leave the normal viewing position.” I’m just a TiVo. You’re God.
Questions
(1) How is the public sphere opening due to technologies like the iPod and the Smart Phone?
(2)How does personal media shape who you are as a person?
(3) What do you experience that isn’t mediated in your daily life? How is mediation improving quality of life?
Katarina Countiss 
I really liked the way you reflected on the readings. It was funny to read, but also very informative. Although I dont have a TiVo I understand the benefits of having one because I always have to watch my favorite shows online. And if the show is not online I cant watch it unless there is a re run over the weekend. TiVo would help me with that and your persuasion just might do the trick.
You’re welcome? I don’t have a TiVo either, so the readings were helpful in understanding what one does. But, yeah. It sure sounds convenient. Yup.