Multiscreen Mad Men: The End Of Flow

The words just jumped on the page this morning: The End Of Flow. “The end of flow?” I though, “But there is more and more flow. More people moving into a flow experience of the wold through new media.” And then I read on, and saw that what the various participants were saying was exactly that: They are leaving the flow that advertisers want to lay down, and into their own.

[from Multiscreen Mad Men - Advertising in a Post-TV World by Jack Hitt]

1. The End Of Flow

[…]

Lars Bastholm: Most media, like television, used to be a kind of flow. You’d sit down, you’d turn it on and you’d watch. The reason advertising is completely broken is that the flow doesn’t exist anymore. There’s no prime time. There’s no such thing as must-see TV. Everyone’s composing their own flow. And once you start becoming the composer of your own flow, you can’t go back. [emphasis mine] You’re like, Why would I have somebody dictate to me what I watch when I’m used to programming for myself?

Yes, why would we ever go back?