sometimes it is better not to have a pause button

[darkoshi]

Me, watching an online movie or DVD:
- watch 10 minutes
- put it on pause and go get a snack. Watch 5 more minutes
- put it on pause and go get some other snack and a drink. Watch 10 more minutes.
- put it on pause to take the clothes out of the washer and hang them up.
- check email or LJ/DW
- watch some more of the movie. ::sniff:: what's that smell? ::sniff, sniff::
- determine that the smell is coming from the sofa. It must really be time to wash this futon cover.
- put movie on pause. Remove futon cover and put it in the washer. Vacuum dust off the futon mattress (how the heck did dust get in there?). Vacuum the rest of the room while I'm at it, and the kitchen too. Spray some odor remover on the worst smelling part of the mattress.
- watch some more movie while sitting on the floor.
- get up and do some exercise while watching movie.
- put movie on pause. go off and do something else. Research printer problem. Fix printer problem.
- for the 10th time, hope that modern LED TVs don't have a problem with image burn-in, as this one paused image has been displaying for the last 2 hours.
- post something to LJ/DW
- possibly return to watching the rest of the movie.

Comments

[andrewducker]

Is it possible that the movie simply isn't grabbing your attention?

[darkoshi]

In this case, definitely. The movie was just amusing enough to keep watching. If there were no pause button, I might have turned it off.

Though I'm prone to pausing more interesting movies too. Sometimes to re-watch something I didn't catch the first time, or to look up on the web something referenced in the movie which I didn't understand. But also to take clothes out of the washer. Or to let the dogs in or out of the house. Etc.

[marahmarie]

This entire post, conversely, is why I almost never watch TV or movies. When I am interested in watching something (an exceedingly rare event in itself as my taste in TV shows and movies is extremely limited and sort of high-brow) I want to give said show or movie my complete, undivided attention. I mean, I don't even want to get up to pee and god help me if the cat has to throw up or the dog has to go out, because unless he's choking on it or she's about to piss the floor it can just wait.

The amount of time I have to give anything my undivided attention is so infinitesimally small that I wind up spending 99% of it on something else besides screen-watching. Sometimes I wish I'd give myself a break but I feel like there's always something else more important to do than catch up on the last nine episodes of The Good Wife or the last 10 movies I told someone I really wanted to see (which was so long ago I forget their titles along with the titles of every other movie I've been meaning to watch for the last 10-20 years).

[darkoshi]

Yes, a part of it for me too is probably that I've gotten so used to having so much stuff I want to do, that it feels unnatural to sit there for 1 or 2 hours straight watching something. Though I did it for Downton Abbey, and would do it for other shows if I was interested enough. In the past, when I was crazy for certain shows like Babylon 5, the thought of pausing it and breaking my viewing into little chunks, thereby diminishing the viewing experience, would have been anathema to me.