I'm a lousy housekeeper, but I get it honestly. My mom was a lousy housekeeper before me and my grandmother before her. I come from a line of women who would rather paint a picture than a bathroom wall, or write a poem instead of do the dishes. I fervently hope my daughter (who is good at math) will prefer doing algorithms to dusting. In my case, I'll take any excuse not to clear up the clutter, carrying the issue so far as to go to graduate school, so I have homework to do instead of tidying. But now, it appears the clutter has migrated as far as my television screen. It seems there is no escape.
Last month, an article appeared in The New York Times about how television screens are taking on more of the look of computer screens. (See http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/24/business/media/24clutter.html?pagewanted=all .)Networks are cramming promotions, news crawls, and other streams of information both wanted and unwanted into our tv viewing experience. The impression that many viewers are left with is that tv screens are far more "cluttered," states the author, than they were until recently, and the experience of watching television more closely resembles that of using a computer.
It is interesting that the clutter is what is related to the computer screen experience. A good computer web page should theoretically not be any more cluttered than a good television screen. But that's not how the users or apparently the networks that are defining our content see it. Whether it is truly an advantage to clutter our television screens in order to make them more appealing to a computer-saavy audience is by no means clear.
In the case of someone trying to read subtitles (one example that opens the article), the added clutter can be entirely maddening. Being a pretty hopelessly linear thinker, I personally find subtitled films a little tedious between trying to follow the plot, take in the lighting and other visual film effects and reading the dialogue. But when the words are obscured by some piece of information I am not focused on at the moment, I am not pleased.
When I watch a program, I do not want to buy the character's shoes. But that is what snipes are for -- to make the most money out of each viewer in this media or the next. An icon will direct viewers of tv shows to places where they can purchase related items.
Screen clutter can be "extremely eye-catching" according to UPENN sociologist David Grazian, despite the research that suggests it impedes comprehension. But the comprehension issue does not deter network moguls who see each iota of screen clutter as money in the bank. So it appears that television screen clutter is here to stay. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go do some vacuuming.
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4 comments:
That article is very interesting I enjoyed reading it.
I've noticed all the "clutter", too, and I actually addressed it in a paper I wrote for another class. Is it coincidental that in the past few years we've begun to see the "logos" of TV networks or stations in the lower right-hand corner of the screen just like we see the logos of companies in the upper left-hand corners of websites? I don't believe that it is coincidence. We also see "popups" on the television screen as well - I find it very annoying to have an advertisement for an upcoming program fill up part of the screen and obscure part of the picture. I don't know about everyone else, but my brain suffers from informational overload at times. It is during those times that I just want to "unplug" and disconnect. I wonder if there will ever be a backlash someday where people will just feel the need to slow down a bit and cut the clutter (like the "slow food" movement, for example, where people actually take the time to cook a meal and sit down to eat it with someone). There's a show on HGTV that helps people eliminate clutter from their homes, which I find a bit ironic - they encourage us to clean up our physical environments, yet they continue bombard us with information!
HAHA clutter.
2 things:
The first has nothing to do with media...but my mom bought a book once about how to eliminate clutter from your life. So I made fun of her...because really, why would anyone buy a 400 page book and READ about cleaning clutter when they can just pick up their shit, right? Then my brother took her book, tossed it on our table and said, "Look! now it IS part of the clutter!"
Sorry, tangent over...
I hate the popups on television. Honestly...I'm ALREADY watching your network! And now, you're interrupting my awesome viewing of Lost or 24 so you can try to make me watch MORE shows on your network? It's annoying, pushy, and disrespectful to the airing show! In 20 years...it's going to be scary how much advertising is going to totally dominate our lives. Soon, there will be no escape. Sounds like a tagline for a movie, but its true.
I agree with you all that tv pop-ups are bad. But I feel the need to allow one exception: VH1's pop-up video. Learning all the pointless trivia about the videos I'm watching is great entertainment. But I'm not sure VH1 does that show anymore, although I know you can get it for your cell phone.
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