How I Became Addicted to T.V.

As a young adult, I never watched t.v. I scoffed at reality television- saying it was just a phase, and this too shall pass. Outside of reruns of Saved By The Bell or mid-day television if I got home early from class- I would not allow myself to become sucked into any corporate sponsored network 'junk'. After taking a Critical History Of T.V. course (yes, a real class offered in film school)- my case against nighttime television had only ever increased... I learned the secret, that t.v. was created as a way for corporations to brainwash people into buying their products. ((side note- I realize I work for a business video company now... I'm getting to a point. Besides, we were all young once and hated "Corporate America")).
Then the day came that changes my life and love of t.v. forever. The day that my husband introduced me to entire t.v. series on DVD. All of a sudden, I found myself immersed in a world where you didn't have to wait until next week... you just had to click "next". The Shield, Prison Break, Heroes, Weeds, The Office, even Twin Peaks and My So Called Life... episode after episode devoured from the comfort of my living room, sans commercial interruption and with instantaneous continuation. I don't consider myself a couch potato... its actually really good motivation to stay on my exercise bike or elliptical longer, and to fold laundry. Recently, we discovered Hulu... which turns out is just a flash-based program that you can watch entirely from your t.v. (if you are a nerd like my husband, who built an entire media center computer himself to host all of our music, DVDs, etc). Amazing! And FREE! We have caught up on all of Heroes Season 3 without even having to put a new DVD into the Blu-ray player. Don't get me wrong... anyone who knows us knows that we keep busy and don't spend all of our time in front of the t.v.... but my change in attitude towards what was once something I scoffed at is baffling to me.
It also raises a question that peaked the "business" interest part of my mind. I have now, literally, seen the same Sprint commercial 400 times- thanks to the limited commercial interruption that brings Heroes to me for my on-demand pleasure. And it made me wonder... how many more people have seen the commercial where the guy is throwing the money he is saving with Sprint into a garbage truck (I can recite the whole thing by this point) than any commercial played during an actual episode of Heroes? With the increasing popularity of watching tv, movies, and listening to music straight from the web- is anyone getting their money's worth by investing $100,000 into a national commercial spot? Statistics say no... but its hard to really grasp what that means in real life. Even for me. Until I started to see it actually applying to my own media pleasure. I would rather watch a 15 second commercial interruption online any day, then have to wait an entire week for the answer to the "To Be Continued", or wait through a 5 minute commercial block. Besides, who doesn't DVR and fast-forward right past those commercials these days anyway? Maybe I'm impatient... but I belong to an impatient generation- and I think that the availability of everything to us at a click of a mouse or keystroke is fueling that. I realize online video advertising is my business- yes. But realizing that played a part in making my after work free time more enjoyable? Priceless.
(Ok... so maybe we all do still catch some broadcasted commercials from network t.v... I think my point still stands)