BBJ #1/ The Choice Conflict
Conflict/1
Dear Reader,
Welcome to the first series of Bread Butter Jam-The Choice Conflict.
Life presents us with a lot of choices. The choices we make determine everything—our happiness, our present, and our future. Some choices are big and some are small, but nonetheless, the impact pinches us all. In this series, we’ll be looking at various conflicts of choice, albeit from various lenses.
We hope you stay with us on our journey, which may be smooth sometimes, maybe bumpy sometimes, but will be resilient all the time. With this, we present to you our very first newsletter.
-Tanvi Bagadiya
(Head Rambler at Bread Butter Jam)
This is a monthly series. The next instalment will be delivered straight to your inbox in November.
Conflict/1
I'd go back to 2016 in a heartbeat if I could. Why? Because while most parts of our days are fraught with conflict, one was remarkably spared. As a student in 2016, I often found myself torn between competing impulses: the desire to sleep in and the need to attend class; the desire to discuss a controversial topic with friends; and there's always that conflict between getting out and meeting new people and expanding my professional network, on the one hand, and retreating to my cosy apartment with a good book, on the other. The latter was always victorious. Time was easier to manage when I was a student, and I could spend it reading and watching my favourite comedies when they normally aired or magically appeared on my hard drive a day after they had aired in the US. I had the naive idea in 2016 that I could keep up with all the new and exciting media and still get pleasure from it.
Things, however, have evolved recently. It's not like I have zero downtime at all. Wrapping up in blankets and immersing oneself in a good book, film, or a television series is always an option. Now, however, it's not as easy as picking up a book or tuning in to MasterChef Australia because it was on at the right time of day. I have a lot of conflicting priorities in my limited (although dwindling) free time. Should I read a book because I enjoy it, catch up on the latest episode of one of the many Marvel series that have recently deluged us, or peruse the selections currently available on Netflix, Prime, Apple TV, and Disney Plus? When I go for a run or a bicycle ride, it's not as easy as just turning on some tunes and moving through the ( I would like to say thin) crowds; instead, I can listen to the new Taylor Swift album on my headphones, or I can listen to the latest episode of The Seen and the Unseen podcast, or, wait for it, I can listen to an audiobook.
Because of the wealth of content available to me, it was never difficult to make decisions or feel conflicted between priorities. In spite of the fact that my options were limited, I foolishly assumed they were extensive. It's getting harder and harder to find a happy medium between all the different kinds of media I like to consume, and it doesn't look like my luck is improving any time soon. The more audiobooks I listen to, the fewer podcasts I can listen to, and the same goes for television shows and books. In terms of entertainment, the modern world is like a huge banquet that I can't seem to finish eating. There's always more to discover, and the options keep growing. The only thing I want to do after a long day is consume something, but I'm conflicted between different options, which leaves me more tired and less entertained than before.
Why are so many choices conflicting?
There are over 2 million podcasts available on Spotify, thousands of book recommendations on Goodreads, and nearly 4,700 movies and TV shows streaming on Netflix right now. How can one choose between so many seemingly excellent media outlets? Though-and if I do turn on the TV, I feel uneasy almost immediately. The Fire TV's home screen looks like a Tetris board, with all the icons stacked vertically. Thanks to the many services I've signed up for, I have access to an abundance of streaming content. There must be something on TV for me to watch, with all the different types of comedies, sitcoms, romantic comedies, and documentaries. Alas, even with endless scrolling through the catalogues of streaming services, I can’t seem to find the right option. After stuffing myself silly at the entertainment spread, I felt like a junkie whose taste buds had been permanently damaged. There was nothing but monotony and discouragement.
According to Nielsen's Total Audience Report for the first three months of 2019, some viewers may tune out if they are overwhelmed by a wide variety of programming options. I am not the only one who is a wounded warrior as a result of this conflict. An average of seven minutes and thirty seconds is spent by users per session, as per Axios, searching for content to watch on streaming services. The average amount of time spent looking for something by younger adults (those aged 18 to 49) is between 8 and 10 minutes, whereas the average amount of time given by older adults is only 5 minutes. According to Nielsen's research, over twenty per cent of viewers who enter a television broadcast uncertain about what they want to watch end up giving up and tuning out. Uncertainty, combined with an abundance of content options, can drive viewers away from a streaming service; nearly 60% of respondents said they would rather return to their favourite traditional television channels if they were unable to find something to watch on the service. We believe that having options is good, but when there are too many of them, it makes it difficult for us to make a choice. The results lend credence to what other researchers have observed about choice: when we are presented with an overwhelming number of options, we tend to default to what is familiar.
Moreover, there are far more podcasts and books (in any format) than we have time to consume. It seems like every day a new episode of your favourite podcast is made available, and there are more and more books being released. I feel the need to follow and subscribe to an infinite number of new podcasts but haven't listened to any of the ones already in my queue. There lie piles of unread books strewn across my room as I keep adding new ones to my to-be-read list on Goodreads.
For all my efforts to take in as much as possible, I find that I'm able to take in exactly zero. The root cause of this rift is obscure. Isn't it easier to just stick to one form of entertainment and pick a single show, movie, or book to indulge in?
The answer probably lies in economics 101-the law of diminishing returns. This is the primary source of our dissatisfaction, accompanied by waves of stress and anxiety. The more we have of something, the happier we should be, but that's rarely the case. Since our level of satisfaction decreases as more options are presented to us, we end up with a plethora of conflicting options and no clear resolutions when faced with them. Since the buffet comparison has been so widely used, let's use it once more to get our bearings.
A buffet is a good illustration of this phenomenon. At first, when you fill your plate and devour your food, every morsel feels no less than Manna Dew, and you leave extremely satisfied; at the second instance, when you explore more options, you explore a little more and refill your plate, but the food may not be Manna Dew this time, and you are satisfied, but not as much as you were initially; and at the third instance, when the choices perplex you even further, leaving you rather unsatisfied and not content. As more is given to you, the value of what you receive decreases.
The majority of the time, this has not only resulted in an internal conflict that has disrupted my time, but putting aside books and podcasts, the conflict has also seeped into our family room and long drives when it comes to streaming movies, music, and television shows. One unhappy customer can still be accommodated, but when four people have different ideas about what to watch or listen to, the situation escalates into a full-scale conflict. The result is either non-stop arguing or complete silence, or all of us sitting with our mobile phones and watching something or listening to something with our headphones plugged in, while the television and stereo remain off.
In conclusion,
Confronting the ever-increasing number of options is one of the most significant difficulties facing the media industry today. One of the most conflicting parts of being a media consumer is figuring out what you want to watch or listen to. After all, we now live in a time when thousands of pieces of content can be accessed with the tap of a finger on a touchscreen device. We spend most of our time looking and only a small percentage of our time using the things we buy or subscribe to. Is it time for a change in the way we are presented with media or is it time to return to the traditional ways? Is it time to return to the old ways of digitally on-demand cable, paying for every album, and every book-is it time to reconsider subscription models?
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