Core Post #2 - Charlotte

 McCarthy discusses the function of television in regulating time in public spaces. Much of her analysis focuses on time spent waiting in hospitals and clinics, many of which played a taped loop of commercially produced health education videos. McCarthy touches upon the institutional anonymity of the waiting room, exploring how the same decor scheme can be found in hospitals or car dealerships. She also points to the attempts of networks to reframe time in waiting areas (generally considered to be wasted time) as a time of productivity, largely through the inclusion of education content. This ties into what I found the most compelling in McCarthy’s analysis: that televisual media in waiting areas “links the activity of passing time to the enduring, institutional goals of education and information” (201). Drawing from Foucault, McCarthy examines the power implicit in not having to wait - a privilege enjoyed by doctors but not patients. The television in these spaces, then, serves a commercial function.

As McCarthy published this book prior to the emergence of social media and smartphones, many of her examples feel a bit dated. However, many of her points regarding the purposes and functions of distraction. In my pre-pandemic times, my ambient media were the podcasts I listened to while walking to campus or taking the bus. In order to keep up with that content these days, I have picked up many craft projects to complete while I listen. The pandemic has also dramatically reshaped waiting times. When I got my flu shot in the fall, I sat for twenty minutes alone in a cold waiting room just across from the pharmacy. The televisions and lights were shut off, the magazines and pamphlets removed. This waiting room felt hostile, not meant to foster any comfort. When I went to an in person doctor's appointment, the waiting experience was similar to that of my flu shot: the building was largely dark and empty, and my time in the space was monitored and controlled. Unlike in the past, where doctor’s offices seem to be constantly behind schedule, the clinic operated with precise efficiency, shuffling me in and out as quickly as possible. I had barely sat down in the waiting room before my name was called. In both cases, waiting time is at once limited and pronounced, as to discourage me from lingering longer in public spaces.