The Pre-Internet Man

The information and entertainment needs of the Pre-Internet Man were pretty simple. In the morning, he functioned in a programmed mode with very limited time.

On most mornings, he had virtually no time for entertainment and the 'actionable information value' that he derived from reading a newspaper was pretty small.

Yet, the pre-internet man dutifully performed the ritual of reading a newspaper or watching the morning TV.

On his commute, he listened to NPR (or its place-equivalent cousin), or sought to be entertained by Music, depending on whether he enjoyed being informed or entertained. So, typically, he pre-set his tuner to the Radio Station that catered to his general taste.

In the evening, he loved to unwind from the hard day behind, by switching on the Television at the appointed-time, to watch his favorite show.

During the weekends, he had more time to unwind and laze around in front of the Television and flip to different channels, based on his mood. The hundreds of channels were abundant enough, to keep him mighty happy.

Mass Media worked to serve these needs, by providing a secure sense of predictability in his life as well as function as a social object for his watercooler conversation.

The current Early Internet Man behaves much like a kid in her toy room, who wants all the toys from the store, yet plays mostly with a few select toys. He tends to spend more time searching for the toy, rather than enjoy playing with a toy.

Traditional media was curated for the mass, as well as talent was filtered. The Early Internet man has tasted the fun of the unfiltered authentic 'unprogram' culture that has emerged with the coming of the internet.

Yet, he carries a huge burden to filter from the long-tail of contents, the ones that does not fit his worldview and taste etc.,, which takes up significant amount of his time and hence the analogy with the kid in her toy room.

No, the solution ain't a digital way to 'fastflip' his newspaper or youtube search Videos, but an Uber-Media device that provides a personal newspaper-equivalent in the morning,personal TV Programming in the evening and a personal-curated Netflix.

For, Personalized Curation is the one and only way to preserve the richness and diversity afforded by the long-tail.