The Paradox of Choice, and MTV’s late 90’s revolutionarily prescient “Zoo-TV” #NOU2

The Paradox of Choice
http://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_choice?language=en

Highly recommend that. Upshot:

Old days: You went shopping for jeans. There was one type. They didn’t fit that well. It took 10 minutes to shop.

Now: Shopping for jeans. There are 100’s of options. They fit *perfectly*. Shopping took 3 hours and you are miserable and depressed.

MTV had a non U2 related program called “Zoo-TV” in the mid to late 90’s: http://archive.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/1997/04/3098

I have it on VHS, and it doesn’t exist anywhere. It was too subversive. Anyhoo.. this is 1996 and they had a mock advert for an eye that sits on top of your TV, and figures out what you want to watch before you realize it, judging mood, etc. It’s scary how prescient.

The tag line was, “Finally… true freedom. Freedom from too much choice”.

I have to digitize this series ASAP!