"Daddy, I just wanna watch TV"

Alright, it's time for some reality check.... Are we wired a bit too much?

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This is the question Larry Magid too had dealt with at his blog. Excerpts –

"I’m not exactly sure who “they” are but I seem to remember that they told us technology would make our lives easier and more efficient. I’m not so sure. Let’s start with our TVs. I’m old enough to remember when TV had two dials - a volume control and a channel changer that let you go from channel 2 to 13. The high-definition TV in my living room is connected to a satellite receiver/personal video recorder with hundreds of channels and several levels of menus. The TV itself has infinitely more controls than the old ones and scores of optional inputs. But there’s more. To hear the TV you have to turn on the audio system, and because I also have a DVD player and an Apple TV but only one optical audio input, I sometimes have to unplug one device and plug in another.

Then there is the gaggle of remote controls. In theory, I could consolidate them with a universal remote. But with new types of equipment coming out all the time from companies that barely existed a couple of years ago, it’s hard for universal remote makers to keep up. Of course there are always the super-universal programmable remotes like Logitech’s Harmony 1000 but do I really want to spend $499 on a remote and invest the time to program it from a PC or a Mac?

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Several years ago I conducted a family training session to teach everyone how to use our new AV system, to which my daughter complained, “Daddy, all I want to do is watch TV.”

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