Friday, June 5, 2009

ODD: On-Demand disorder

Xconomy's Wade Roush writes: "The main symptom of ODD is an aversion to any experience, product, or piece of content that can’t be obtained more or less instantaneously.  And the main long-term consequence may be a narrowing of one’s world-view to exclude ideas and materials that take a little more work to uncover."

Strike a chord?  This includes even the Roku Player vs Netflix, the latter so popular in recent years, but:
  "In the three months since I bought a Roku Player—a $99 wireless device that lets you view movies from Netflix and Amazon on your TV instantly -- I have watched dozens of movies and TV shows on the Roku.  In the same time, I’ve watched exactly two physical DVDs from Netflix... This despite the fact that the selection of DVDs at Netflix is still far greater than the selection of so-called 'Watch Instantly' movies.  In effect, I’m sacrificing choice for availability."

  Then, the obvious example of the Kindle is given, as well as the impact of digital imagery and "the difference between seeing a digital copy of a famous painting and actually being in front of it."  He worries about the long-term effects of this laziness and the loss of moments of real discovery.  I'm not as worried but it was an interesting read.  And I just liked the idea of ODD!

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