The Contension of My Content

Before I begin, I would like to propose a homework assignment for the comments. For a casual computer user how would you propose to fill a 1TB hard drive? You should take out of the equation video editing and general business use. I’ll contend that there is not 1TB of quality content out there to warrant this size drive, and would like to be proven wrong, but first, please read on to see how I got to this pondering.

I’ve been spending the last few days porting myself into a new Dell desktop computer and have come across some interesting observations along the way. It seems that moving your data from computer to computer these days, is fairy analogous to moving to a new home. The last time I bought a new system I believe I just took some CD-ROMS to back up and transfer my files. This week however I have discovered how drastically my computer usage, and computing in general, has changed in the last five years.

I was to cheap to purchase the Belkin cable that would have made transferring the bulk of my data simple. Instead, I pulled out an old Netgear router and set up a simple network for kicks. When I found out I was one ethernet cable short (again, being to cheap and impatient to run out and buy one) I instead used an unused  wireless USB adapter from my old Tivo, to finish off the network. This in itself is a far cry from just burning some CDs and popping them in the new computer.

A week later now, and I finally feel comfortable that all the data is indeed in the new computer. In getting a new system I have also switched from XP to Vista so I’m also getting myself accustomed to a new interface and thus decided it’s time to really go through my files, and start tossing stuff out just like you might do when you move.

What I have come to realize is that I have more content then I know what to do with. Between my music, audio books, e-books, videos, and photos, I have enough content to keep a castaway content for years. I- tunes alone tells me it could run for 90 consecutive days before it would it would run out of new material, and that doesn’t include the new content podcasts provide on a daily basis there. I then came to realize that’s just what’s on my computer. When I add in my boxes of books, hunderds of DVD’s, multiple seasons of television shows, and cartons of unorganized photos, I’ve come to realize that I’ve outpaced my ability to keep up with my own content. No amount of cataloging, tagging, or general organization, is going to allow me to effectively use all of this content.

What this has left me to ponder is how, in the future, am I to decide what content I’m interested in keeping, or God forbid, actually view. My choices for input have become so wide and varied, that content providers better stop worrying about who is doing what with their materials, and begin to realize that the real problem is quality of content issue.

I’ll stand tall and admit that I have downloaded my share of movies and music over the last few years, but here’s my excuse: I don’t want to pay for crap! There has been numerous time that I thank the Internet Gods that I didn’t have to pay for the crud I just watched, but at the same time I could name a dozen movies that we watched “illegally,” only to run out and purchase them the day they came out on DVD. The same certainly applies to music as well. The bands I loved from the 90’s are still making albums, but some are crap, (“Zeitgeist” by Smashing Pumpkins comes to mind) some are brilliant (Flamming Lips “At War with the Mystics” comes to mind there.) I’m more that happy to purchase music that I care for, but I want to be spared purchasing a turd as well. Downloading the music beforehand gives me that heads up.

Perhaps that’s what the record and movie industries fear most, the ability of the average consumer to be in a state of content overload with the ability to easily access and screen new content for quality. They then no longer are able to trick us with slick trailers and ad campaigns. In theory then this can only benefit the consumer since, if they have to focus on quality, we should get more Junos and Superbads and less sequels and television remakes.

As hard drives get larger and MP3 and media players become more portable with larger capacities, human nature begins to take ove,r and you begin to obsess over filling those players. My hope is that the next time you are starring at the Best Buy ad, contemplating if you should pay up for that 1TB HD, ask yourself is there really 1TB of usable content out there for you? So the lesson learned here is never buy a new computer and stay up until 5am writing about it. (i.e. I’m tired, but wanted to get that stuff out there.)

Thanks for hanging in there with me. Now please go and try the comments homework.