The Changing Viewer
Ink2Quill October 2019 Editorial

The changing viewer in all forms of media is here. The consumer of ideas, opinions, artisitic expressions, goods and services has changed its habits, or more precisely, the way it conducts its consumption. The viewer, as we know it, was born from an age when information and ideas became widespread to the public. The viewer of today immerged from a changing age when people were given access to reading, writing and other ideas. Paper books, paper magazines, radio, TV, movies and even word of mouth were the media for the exchange of such information.

Out of these media came the viewers of today. In the days of radio, TV and film, both black and white and color, the viewer had access to a growing number of programs and artistic content but it was very much a limited menu. TV had a fixed number of channels with a fixed number of programs and the viewers of yesterday had no say what the TV stations did or content. They could only chose from the list.

With the birth of the internet came the birth of content creators who not only added to the ballooning list content for viewers but created that content themselves. Those viewers who created content themselves are called content creators, bloggers, podcasters among other names. These content creators have created a new set of boundaries for the viewers and have changed viewing habits. Before the internet, the viewer had to choose from a list of content. Now a viewer is overwhelmed by the long list of content and often rely on bots to help them make a selection. The nature of the content and topics covered have also blown up form travel blogs to podcasts. There are content creators for nearly any topic a viewer can think of, no matter how obscure. I´ve watched videos on how to build a log cabin with only wood and clay as well as ideas on plasma engines and the obstacles of space flight from non academic content creators. You have topics like food porn where you watch someone far away eat delicious food (I think the Koreans are the best at this hands down).

So how has all this changed the habits of viewers? To start viewers´attention spans have shrank and continue to do so. We now live in an age of the click or scrolling where new digital content is evaluated by the viewer in under 3 seconds. The viewer wil scroll or click to the next item if they are not captivated within a few seconds. This also means that a viewer can surf online looking for content for hours without ever watching a program in its entirity. This is an extremely common phenomenon in our times. I´ve spent literally hours clicking video after video, show after show, after only watching a few minutes.

Another interesting phenomenon is word of mouth. I often find myself asking around on what good shows are out there. I also get asked that qestion on the regular. I remember a phone call with my sister years ago. She told how how this program on HBO called Game Of Thrones was all the rage. She also suggested a program called Modern Family. I have to tell you that those are some of the best shows out there to date.

Anoher interesting phenomenon is the BS program, like when a travel blogger makes videos in their back yard and tells its viewers that they are in an exotic location. Or when a political blogger purposefully misquotes someone to influence viewer opinions. There is a lot of BS online and I think it best to accept most content, even if they call themselves the news, to be pure entertainment. There are reliable content creators but for the most part a viewer must be wary.

So, the viewer of today is someone with more options than they know what to do with and who spends too much time in front of their screens. They feel smarter than the viewer of days past but their consumption habits don´t reinforce that idea. They have digital networks but never really meet with the people on those digital networks. Access to content is also cheaper than ever so our community of viewers will only continue to grow. All in all the viewer of today, the consumers of ideas and artisitc expression, today are the luckiest in recorded history.

John

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