4 Years Unplugged

I love pumpkin spice lattes and boots as much as the next person, but for me fall is all about my anniversary of moving to New York City and the beginning of my life without cable television, or any television at all. And look, I'm still alive to tell the story!

Four years ago this October, I moved to the Upper East Side of Manhattan with one of my college friends. We both got jobs at the same time, achieving a goal we both had to move to NYC after graduation. Not surprisingly, our salaries were entry level, making it hard to survive financially in the city. So, I was faced with choosing between my two loves: food or the Kardashians.

I mean, I seriously should be the 6th sister, my name does start with a "K"
Photo from vibe.com

I chose food. Our first year in New York we had an old boxy TV but no cable. Then, we moved downtown and never plugged the TV back in (gotta love tiny NYC apartments). I remember in the beginning when I would mention that I did not have cable or a TV, people would look at me like I was a freak of nature. But in the past few weeks I've heard a few people say they do not have TVs and no one else in the conversation seems to think it's strange. Also, some of my friends have cancelled their cable subscription. Finally, I'm fitting in!

To be fair, I might be a cord cutter, but I still watch TV. Here's why and how I've survived these past 4 years:

1. I didn't grow up really watching TV. Not because my parents didn't let me, but because in our first house the TV was in the basement and I was afraid to go down there.  I'm fairly certain that is where it all started. Once we moved, I had already discovered how much I loved playing with Barbies and using my imagination, so TV seemed boring. I then became a competitive swimmer in middle school and swam all the way through college which meant I had swim practice every day during prime time viewing hours. All of my friends were swimmers, so they missed out on TV as well, causing me to think it was normal to not watch TV.

2. The CW put all of their shows online, and since the only show I ever fell in love with was 'Gossip Girl' I really had no reason to pay for cable. Now that Chuck and Blair ended up together and all is right in the world, I can move on with my life.

For this photo and more  C & B click here

3. My parents live in Philadelphia, only about 2 hours away and barely use their DVR so I just load up all of the shows I want to watch and go home once a month to binge view.

4. Netflix... the perfect way to binge watch anything that you know will suit your interest. House of Cards has currently distracted me from all of my schoolwork. I've been telling myself it is giving me inspiration for my thesis on political communications strategies, but we all know that's a lie.

Find out why you'll love it as much as me

5. Shady websites where you can stream episodes of Mad Men. I really could only do this my first 2 years in Manhattan, now I have to use #3 because I don't have the patience or effort to find and load these sites.

6. The gym... I legitimately cannot workout on a machine without a TV because I get so bored. I'd like to thank E! for replaying the Kardashians all the time so I can keep up with my favorite all-American family.

Over a year ago I started babysitting for a family that my cousins put me in touch with. The kids were great, and I thought it would be awesome to be able to watch their TV after the kids went to bed. As it turns out, the TV wasn't that great. First, TVs have become a lot more complicated in the past 4 years and I have a hard time finding the shows on DVR or On Demand and finagling all the remotes. Try explaining to a 3 and 5 year old that you "don't know" how to use the TV. They look at me like I'm an alien or lying to them. Then, I discovered I really have no interest in surfing channels or just watching TV to pass the time. Good thing I have that thesis to work on!

I still get comments from people who ask how I survive without cable, but I'm more concerned as to how I would survive without food. I'm still a true believer that TV rots your brain, and even if I won the lottery next week, I'm not sure I would get cable. It's just something I've learned to live without.

More Data, More Problems?

This past weekend at the Legends of Summer concert at Yankee Stadium, Jay Z rapped his famous line "more money, more problems." As I stood there, in the 99 degree heat, watching a man with jewelry on him worth more than all the jewelry I will probably ever own, on stage in front of thousands of his fans, I wondered "did having more money really bring Jay Z more problems?!"

I obviously understand the concept. The more of something you have, the more you have to deal with it and manage it. Same goes for big data. The world suddenly is overwhelmed by all the information available at our fingertips. According to Google's Eric Schmidt, in 2 days, humans can create the same amount of information that it took from the beginning of time until 2003 to create.

As someone who spends most of their day using numbers and results to prove that an ad campaign was effective, or that a target consumer is in X, Y o r Z advertising medium, I was nodding my head while reading the Harvard Business Review article Advertising Analytics 2.0. I was in total agreement with the statement about how all of the new data can take an existing marketing budget but re-allocate it and create a 10-50% performance increase. Too often I see media bought and sold based on what people like or don't like, all while ignoring statistics.

Check out one Big Data Evangelist's POV

But then I read about Netflix knowing "House of Cards" was going to be a huge success before they even began filming, because they had so much data on consumers they knew what it took to make a hit show.

Is this scary?

Well, Netflix has over 30 million subscribers, and knows what those subscribers watch and when they watch and what they like. I'd be concerned if they were just sitting on that data and crossing their fingers hoping for the best financially...especially in this economy.

For a second, I was worried I was being brainwashed by Netflix, and whoever else was targeting me based on my online behavior.

But then I realized: I'm too busy to research the millions of shows and movies and products there are out there. It could legitimately take me a year to research the best volumizing shampoo now that I have Amazon, and can have any brand of shampoo in the world shipped to me. Same goes for TV, I know it takes a few episodes to get hooked, but then if I don't get hooked...that's time I will never get back. If someone else is going to plug in a few numbers, track my behavior and recommend for me within moments what I am going to like best, and in fact I am going to absolutely love it ... maybe I should just thank them.