Okay, don’t get me wrong: TV has always been relevant to my life. I’m talking about live TV here.
I didn’t really watch a lot of TV until my freshmen year at KU. But I did all my TV watching on Hulu or on DVD… my roommate and I didn’t even own a TV. Those were back in the days when I was forcing myself to watch Castle every week, Lost was still going strong and Fringe was just an okay show.
The same goes for my sophomore and junior years at KU. I’m a avid TV watcher, but I would always watch my shows a day (or two) after on Hulu or other sites which I won’t mention on this blog.
But this year I’ve made it a point to watch a few shows every week live. Why? Because I kept finding myself getting spoiled via Twitter, blogs that I read or in Facebook status updates. I still remember the day that I got the fourth season finale of Dexter ruined for me.
(***SPOILERS AHEAD***)
“Like OMG they killed off Rita on Dexter. Why did they have to kill off the hottest girl on that show?!?”
Yeah, thanks asshole. I’ll keep your name anonymous here but in reality I’d like to do something something Dexter, knives and saran wrap – your body in Bay Harbor. That moment was probably the high point of the show (which I’ve now quit watching), and the wounds are still kind of fresh.
My point is that I think social media has made live TV relevant again. This fall I tried to watch Glee, Once Upon a Time and Breaking Bad live because I was wary of being spoiled. If I don’t watch them live, I’ll most likely accidentally stumble upon a wall of .gifs from the latest episode on Tumblr the next day.
Now that I watch these shows live, I can join in conversations on Twitter, for example, during the actual broadcast.
“Like wow that was an awesome performance by the Trouble Tones. #Glee”
NBC promotes #TheVoice during broadcasts of its hit American Idol rival, and it has become one of the most social shows on TV.
With almost every show promoting hashtags in the bottom corner of the screen, “social TV” is now more prominent than ever. You can watch a show live by yourself but be a part of a community of fans through social media. Just stay away from my Twitter feed if you have to watch Glee later this week – you don’t want to be spoiled.
