Saturday, September 23, 2006

Good for a T'comm prof...but is it good overall?

One of the things I love about being a professor in Telecommunications is that my subject matter is certainly one that students recognize as a vital part of their lives. As an example of that, consider the new data from Nielsen showing that, on average, the American home contains more television sets than people!

However, with viewing up (on average the set is on almost 1/3 of the day...8 HOURS), I wonder if that is truly a good thing. I have been torn lately with all the non-TV related things I want to do and all the new or returning shows coming on now that the Fall premiers are here. For example, I'm taking a class at IU this semester on the math/statistics program Matlab. It's a very useful program...one that will certainly help in my research work. I'm also teaching a course on Psychophysiological Responses to Media and there are a variety of resources I'm exploring during my preparations for that course...which I find both interesting and enlightening, and ultimately helpful for the book project I'm involved in. Then there are piano lessons, dad-and-husband-stuff, etc. etc. etc.

All these things are huge draws to me...but then, there is: Grey's Anatomy, My Name is Earl, CSI, Numb3rs, Dirty Jobs, House, Bones. All of which have returned and been placed in my Tivo cue. And there are all the new shows: The Nine, Ugly Betty, Studio 60...time to buy more screens I suppose.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Oh, cool, you're taking piano lessons? I didn't know that; when'd you start? How're they going?