Core Post--Sarah Johnson

Thinking about "Television While You Wait" I found it hard to relate because despite my years of going to the doctor, I have only been to two different offices that have shown a package of content that the office bought. I’m much more used to seeing the news, HGTV or food network. So I definitely related to her aside of hoping my name doesn’t get called before the end of the episode.  The thinking of this comes across so contradictory because no one wants to sit in a waiting room for extended periods of time, but the idea that you could miss the conclusion of something you’ve invested time into is frustrating.

I feel that this article is not too terribly dated because in a lot of doctor’s offices cell phones do not have service in the building or people waiting are asked to not have the cell phones out. I feel that this is slowly changing, but the person waiting is restricted to using their phone in ways that do not require connection to the outside world. This kind of creates a bubble for the people waiting. The people are in a sort of limbo because they are waiting for something while also unable to leave or get caught up in what’s going on in the outside world. This changes of course if the office is playing the news on the television or in other settings of waiting that allow the waiter to come and go.

I also found the discussion of the placement of these screens to be very interesting. Somewhere (can’t remember what it was called) I read about the transition from television to radio that television was called the new hearth. This can be seen in living rooms that the furniture is arranged around the television so that no matter where you are sitting you can see the screen. It’s interesting to think that to an extent there is some similar planning going into waiting rooms. Waiting rooms give people the opportunity to sit in a location that allows them to look at the screen while also affording to others the ability to ignore it.  My OBGYN’s office in particular fits in with this with having an actual partition between the seats close to the television and the seats that are further away.