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I'm finding that the "digital photo effect" is starting to make its way into my music and video experiences as well. What's the DPE? My ability to produce and acquire has far outstripped my ability to consume. Produce from my own digital camera. Acquire from friends, family, Flickr, etc. This has a couple of ramifications:
- I feel behind all the time.
- Because there is so much to consume, I don't enjoy each individual photo as much as I did when they were physical prints. I click through fast.
- Because of 1 and 2, sometimes I don't even bother.
Back in the day, I'd get a CD and I'd listen to it. A lot. A CD was a considered purchase - if I was going to make the effort to go to the store and spend my hard earned money on it, it was going to be worth it. In the car, at the gym, at work, at home - I'd listen to it everywhere. The first few listens usually couldn't be at work, because I'd be listening. Once my brain knew the album, then it could become soundtrack to whatever else I was working on.
Now, the time between when I think that I might be interested in hearing, say, the new Bjork album and when I can actually have it is minutes. Transaction cost can be as low as free (depending on if I use something like iTunes or something like BitTorrent). Assuming I used BitTorrent, it's cost me nothing and taken me no time, so there's no inherent pressure to listen to it. Repeat this a bunch of times, and all of a sudden, my hard drive is full of music that I've never heard, and the DPE starts to kick in. So what do I do? I listen to the same old albums over and over (lately Akufen), because I know I like them and that they won't disturb me while working. Most of the time these happen to be albums that I've ripped myself, after having listened to the CDs a lot. So having more music available has made me seek the comfort of what I already know. Do I just need more time so that I can "catch up"? Do I need a mobility solution so that I can leverage non-PC time? Do I need a curator like Activaire? Do I need to raise my transaction costs so that I feel a need to get my money's worth?
The same scenario applies to video, except that consumption is even harder, because you have to dedicate time/attention to it.
Another interesting question is whether the new way people process digital media is changing the way they process physical media as well. Now that they're used to racing through hundreds of digital photos, do they also race through physical ones?
