We Watch TV Wrong

47% of people admit they do this before taking a selfie.

I’ll have your answer coming up.

In our house, we’re big on documentaries and British crime dramas. For every 100 shows we watch on TV, I’ll bet 80 of them fall into one of those two categories.

We’re also curious creatures. When something interesting develops on a show, we want to talk about it.

Not later. Right then.

So the pause button gets a workout on that couch.

I remember bringing this up on the radio show one time, and people are certainly split on it. Some are just like Gretchen and me, pausing to discuss. Others can’t stand that, and just want to watch straight through and then maybe chat about it afterwards.

My two problems with that latter approach:

One, a good discussion in the moment clears the decks so you’re ready to move on to the next thing. Besides, when you’re in the moment, you’re more likely to have a lively conversation about the idea.

And two . . .

Well, I’ll just say it. If I have to wait until the end of a show to talk about it, the odds are I’ll completely forget what was on my mind.

But here’s what I’ve come to realize, and it’s bigger than my leaky memory.

For a lot of people, television is how you check out. You’ve had a long day, you sink into the couch, and you let a show carry you somewhere else. The last thing you want to do is think.

For Gretchen and me, it’s the opposite. The show is how we check in.

That documentary isn’t really the main event—it’s the spark. It’s there to set off the ten-minute tangent about something we’d never have landed on otherwise.

Half the time we’re not even talking about the show anymore. We’re three subjects downstream. That’s the good stuff.

Which makes me wonder if the pause button is even the point.

Everything about the way we watch now is built to keep us from stopping. The next episode starts before you’ve had a chance to breathe. Autoplay assumes you never want to surface.

So there’s something almost rebellious about jabbing that button on purpose. Not to pause the show, but to start the conversation.

We’ll take twice as long to finish anything as anyone we know. Sometimes we have to rewind a few seconds just to find the thread again.

I wouldn’t trade a minute of it. Because the show was never really the reason we sat down.

What do they always do before taking a selfie?

They practice their facial expressions.

For the rest of us, we’re just leaving it to fate.

It is sweet. The latest, greatest universal remote not even on the market yet.