Weather Report

September 20th, 2007

I am continually amazed that people still watch the evening news to get the weather report. And the games the news team play with the audience — “Tomorrow, it may snow or hail fireballs. Find out after the break!” It’s as though you are held hostage just to find out if you should wear a jacket or not. I recognize that for some, it may simply be a ritual or habit. Some may even find the “weather guy” entertaining.

My weather needs are very basic. I adopted them from a comedian, although I forget which one: I stick my head out of the window. If it comes back wet –it’s raining. If it doesn’t come back –it’s very, very windy. On the occasion when I do want to know the weather, I hold down ‘W’ on my cell phone and I access my region’s mobile page from the Weather Underground complete with 5-day forecast.

With all of the near real-time information available to us, it seems strange to rely on the evening news. I don’t ever watch television news. The “all news” stations have too much pressure to make news so everything becomes an “alert”, or the same stories are continually repeated ad nausem. Even in the car, I can no longer listen to 1010Wins, where if you “give us twenty-two minutes, we’ll give you the world.” To me it seems more like “give us twenty-two minues, we’ll give you four minutes of the same stories we gave you twenty-two minutes ago, a minute of traffic for everywhere except where you are, and 17 minutes of commercials.”

I think the Internet is the perfect medium for news and weather. You can get it when you want it, there is lots of it, and it can easily be updated. Don’t even get me started with newspapers. The information is out-of-date the minute it hits the reformation of shredded tree carcasses. Perhaps recognizing this trend, the New York Times recently raised the price of its printed newspaper, but changed its online edition to allow more free access.

Much of this boils down to format preference and the technology gap. For those who are connected with computers, laptops, and handhelds, the Internet is never out of reach and tends to be the first reach for information. Traditionally, television ruled the living room, radio ruled the car, and printed material ruled everywhere else–including the bathroom. But even that is changing. (see picture below)

There is still something very tactile about a book, magazine, or even a work document. I must admit I don’t like reading eBooks and still like to print out long documents rather than read them on the screen. I’m sure that the youngsters might also consider this practice archaic as they read their “books” on their cell phones–if they still read books that is.

Entry Filed under: Digital Living

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