On Pausing the TV - Lilla Spanyi

Tania Modleski’s article touches on idea of “flow,” arguing that television integrates commercials as part of the experience, and that the interruptions are connected to the “work of women in the home” (67). “Flow” is a concept also discussed in the Feuer article a few weeks ago, who argues that “flow” is a pure illusion, in that TV is actually “constituted by a dialectic of segmentation” (15).

This reminded me of a tweet I’ve seen floating around the Internet that essentially says “kids these days will never know the stress of running to the kitchen/bathroom/bedroom during the commercial break while your family is yelling ‘IT’S ON.’” Somebody responded with “but couldn’t you just pause the TV?”

This idea of “pausing the TV” is a novel concept to me as well. As someone who doesn’t own a TV and has never had a TV that could be paused, I’ll admit that I have no idea how it works. But I do feel that somehow, it goes against the basic concept of television. With the whole idea of TV being live or real time (or at least the feeling that it is), I feel like once you have the ability to hit pause, you’re no longer watching television in the classical sense. You’re watching a TV screen or a TV set that you’re essentially using as a monitor, if that distinction makes sense. And the whole excitement of watching live TV that Feuer talks about also goes out the window, as if you pause your TV the “live” recording you are watching suddenly becomes delayed. 

I have no real point to make here, it just makes me wonder — is the ability to hit pause ruining the traditional television experience?