Gadgetopia

How big is something when it gets an “effect”? And what about when no one can decide what that “effect” is?

I’d been hearing about “The Tivo Effect” for a while, and I figured it’d make a good post, so I went looking for a definition. I found this article, this one, this one, this one, and dozens of others, all claiming something different about “The Tivo Effect.”

As near as I can tell, it could mean:

• the tendency for advertisers to increase product placement within TV shows (since actual ads can now be skipped)
• the echo created by two TVs in the house watching the same show while one of them is “time-shifted” because of Tivo’s ability to pause live TV.
• the inability to go back to life before Tivo
• the increased spare time you have now that you can reduce your TV watching into concentrated blocks of time
• the decreased spare time you have now that you record and watch shows you might never have recorded before

So I still have no idea what The Tivo Effect is, but what’s important is that Tivo has affected television viewing to the point where it has a “named effect.” And evidently so many of these effects that no one can agree what the most important one is. Do you have a definition for “The Tivo Effect?”

Someday there will be a “Gadgetopia Effect.” When that day comes, someone please tell me what it is.