It is vary rare I find myself in front of the TV on a Saturday night. I don't deliberately avoid it but to be honest I generally have something else to do and it has been a fair while since I've partaken of the delights of "Prime Time" weekend television. I wish I hadn't bothered.
There are over 200 channels available on the "typical" Sky package and the number which contain something which would command my attention for more than 5 minutes can be easily counted on my fingers and toes - without needing to use my toes. Maybe it is just me, I've never been the biggest watcher of TV, but I really do think that the standard of programming is falling off a cliff.
You would think that more channels would mean more chance of finding something to watch but it seems the opposite is true. More choice seems to relate to less effort being made in putting together programming and so the quality becomes dire. But it is not just this aspect of life where I have noticed this.
The "mass production" age has without doubt sacrificed quality for quantity and the shelf life of things seems to have been dramatically reduced. Take road repairs as an example. While I appreciate there has been a substantial increase in the number of cars on the road, the lifetime of the average road repair appears to be
significantly shorter than it was maybe 5 years ago.
We have roads near me that are being dug up and repaired on an almost yearly basis - yet you can see just by looking that the quality of workmanship and the materials is vastly inferior. The approach seems to be to spend as little time and effort as possible on a short fix and not worry about the fact you have to do it many times as often as if you had done the job properly in the first place.
Household goods are another thing where the proliferation of options has lead to a massive drop off in quality. Washing machines, ovens, TVs and other (mainly electrical items) seem to break on an alarmingly regular basis compared to the "good old days". This isn't a case of perfectly good TVs being discarded for the latest model either, this is terminal "kaput-ness" necessitating a brand new item. Yet we seem to just treat this as part of modern life.
Part of the problem has of course been brought on by our own short-termism. TVs aren't made to last 5 years any more because manufacturers know that the average person will want to upgrade their TV to the latest model after only a few years to avoid being "left behind". We are demanding less from our products and services and those providing them are simply supplying the demand. Short-term thinking is a real problem when it comes to tackling long-term problems.
Back to the TV channel analogy. We marvel over the endless possibilities of 200+ TV channels without realising that there is nothing on these channels of value. How many people will plonk themselves in front of the TV and "try and find something on"? We have to become more discerning about our choices and to demand more of those providing services and goods again.
It is a slippery slope to get on when you start to allow standards and quality (of anything, not just TV programmes) to fall. I think we need to begin to raise the standards of what is expected and what we are prepared to accept, in all aspects of life.
Choice is a fine thing, but the illusion of "more means better" needs to be shattered quickly before mediocre becomes the norm and the standards we set for ourselves and others drop any further.
Today's #randomfactoftheday - The only fictional character to have two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is Kermit the Frog.
Today's #badjokeoftheday - Q: What do you call a woman with one leg longer than the other? A: Eileen
Today's #websiteoftheday - Solving a Rubik's Cube (http://www.rubiks.com/solving-center/solve_rubiks_3x3_cube.phphttp://www.rubiks.com/solving-center/solve_rubiks_3x3_cube.php)
On this day: 1905, death of one of the greatest and most influential Science Fiction writers of all time - Jules Verne
Till next time
DT
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