TiVo: Best friend, worst enemy.

The bane of academia is television–well, unless you’re studying technology and society (^_^). Any undergrad will tell you that zoning out and forgetting all of that expensive education in front of the tube is the best thing ever. However, along with college comes study groups, cramming at the library, running out to the store at 1am for toilet paper, etc. This chaos doesn’t always compute with living by the television schedule. Seriously. I have no idea when I will be going to bed tomorrow, if I’ll be in the library, or if I have to run home to save a lizard or family member. There is no way I could possibly plan my schedule and 100% of the time to make sure I catch everything (rerun Lost you bastards!). The other problem: crazy time-slots. There’s no way I’m staying up until 2am to watch a 15 minute cartoon show. Some might, but I’d question their academic standing.

All in all, a college’s student life truly requires something that breaks them from the dependence on the TV schedule. TiVo has done this by recording everything for you and saving it until chaos settles a bit. On thursday nights, for example, I am now free to go out with friends or go to the library to write papers instead of sitting around and watching my usual night-o-drama. True, there is the VCR, but why deal with that when you can fully automate your entertainment institutions!

This freedom created by TiVo is wonderful, but it doesn’t solve one very big problem: you’re still watching TV. TV sucks time away, and college students generally need as much time as they can get in a day to get everything done. Yes, chill time is just as important as productive time (don’t believe me? talk to someone who doesn’t get chill time), but it can be hard to place chill time in a slot that does not interfere with productive time when there are so many things to watch just at your fingertip (err, thumb that is)!

This being said, I still wouldn’t give up my TiVo. TiVo does not alleviate the need for responsible viewing, but allows you the freedom to go about your business and forget all about TV for a few nights.