A good friend and I were sitting around watching TV. He was flipping through the channels (much like I might ) a few seconds, flip, news, flip, commercial , flip, flip, news.... you get the idea.
Finally, he stops on a channel that I would have stopped on. It was Seinfeld. It was a show both of us had seen before.
We were watching a show we had seen before. He asked "why?" It is a question that is still bugging me. Why do people watch reruns that they have seen before? Are there really that many new folks watching MASH or is it people that have seen MASH dozens of times and they like to stop and recall the episode. Is watching a rerun like sleeping? Does the brain actually play the old tape of the show so it can process the days stress in some other part of the brain? When the focus slips back to the TV the old tape in the head can fill in the gaps?
What is going on? Why am I attracted to watch shows that I have seen before? Do I expect the same laughs at yada,yada? No. I know the show it is comfortable so I watch it. Why does the brain enjoy that story?
Finally, how do reruns and the psychology of enjoying reruns influence what we know about frames and issue fatigue? Is it good to find new stories or does the public "lock in" on a political struggle they feel comfortable participating in? Should we just revisit the battles we won in the past and play the same talking points again and again?
How will this dynamic playout in an online world? Why do people watch shows that they have seen before?
nuts....
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