The remote control is a classic case of technology that exacerbates the problem it is meant to solve. As the historian of technology Edward Tenner puts it: “The ease of switching channels by remote control has promoted a more rapid and disorienting set of images to hold the viewer, which in turn is leading to less satisfaction with programs as a whole, which of course promotes more rapid channelsurfing.” If only the programmers could tie your hands… . for your own good! Still, isn’t possession of the remote a form of power? It does serve you, as a weapon against bad programming, even if the audience does not always use it wisely. Robert Levine, a social psychologist, cites studies that find “grazers” changing channels twenty-two times a minute. “They approach the airwaves as a vast smorgasbord, all of which must be sampled, no matter how meager the helpings,” Levine writes. He contrasts these frenetically greedy Westerners—Americans, mostly—with Indonesians “whose main entertainment consists of watching the same few plays and dances, month after month, year after year,” and with Nepalese Sherpas who eat the same meals of potatoes and tea through their entire lives. The Indonesians and Sherpas are perfectly satisfied, Levine says.

The remote control is a classic case of technology that exacerbates the problem it is meant to solve. As the historian of technology Edward Tenner puts it: “The ease of switching channels by remote control has promoted a more rapid and disorienting set of images to hold the viewer, which in turn is leading to less satisfaction with programs as a whole, which of course promotes more rapid channelsurfing.” If only the programmers could tie your hands… . for your own good! Still, isn’t possession of the remote a form of power? It does serve you, as a weapon against bad programming, even if the audience does not always use it wisely. Robert Levine, a social psychologist, cites studies that find “grazers” changing channels twenty-two times a minute. “They approach the airwaves as a vast smorgasbord, all of which must be sampled, no matter how meager the helpings,” Levine writes. He contrasts these frenetically greedy Westerners—Americans, mostly—with Indonesians “whose main entertainment consists of watching the same few plays and dances, month after month, year after year,” and with Nepalese Sherpas who eat the same meals of potatoes and tea through their entire lives. The Indonesians and Sherpas are perfectly satisfied, Levine says.