Do you know what digital media needs?
Okay, that’s a topic that could provide the basis for an entire book. So instead, let me give you a simple scenario. You’re sitting at home one night and scrolling through your streaming service of choice, or maybe even your personal library on a media box like Roku or Apple TV. You come across one of your favorite shows. Maybe it’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, maybe it’s Supernatural, maybe it’s The X-Files, maybe it’s One Life to Live (hey, who am I to judge?). You think, “man, I could go for an episode of this show” and you select it.
Now you have even more work to do, because you have to choose one episode out of the dozens that are available to choose from. Which season do you choose? Which episode do you choose? It’s enough to make someone say, “screw this.”
Of course, this didn’t used to happen. In the days before streaming media and full season sets became available. And that’s not a knock against those things. Believe me, I love having my favorite TV shows available at the push of a button and all organized in order. If you’ve got an entire weekend or so to waste, there’s no better way to do it than watching your own personal marathon of your favorite TV show.
But what if you’re not in the mood for that? What if you just want to watch a random episode? For the most part, when I feel like watching an episode of The Simpsons, it doesn’t really matter what episode is available. All I care about is watching a random episode. In the past, this was actually much easier, I knew that at certain times, The Simpsons would be on the air. Didn’t matter which episode, I just wanted to watch the show. And that was good enough.
And this, my friends, is what digital video is missing—randomization.
The bizarre thing is this is so easy to implement. We already have the option with digital music to sort music at random. Why can’t we do it with TV shows? And why does it have to stop with TV shows? What if you’re trying to find a movie to watch on a Friday night and can’t choose? Why not a command that selects a movie at random?
This is something to consider, media providers. It’s not a complicated move, in fact it’s probably the simplest change ever. But it is very useful.