Theory of natural selection, Modified

why is it that whenever you're listening to music or watching tv and pick what you want to listen to or watch, it's just not the same as randomly hearing it on the radio or finding it while channel surfing?

this is a fundamental question of my theory of natural selection. what is the significant difference between naturally selecting and randomly finding? 

so there you are, relaxing, listening to music via iTunes, windows media player, winamp, youtube, iPod, iTouch, etc... and you keep clicking the skip button. and then, you find that one song that you're really into at the moment (say, m.i.a.'s "paper planes"), and you make it through that song, but as soon as the next song comes on, you skip along. why? 

quick change: so there you are, driving on the road, listening to the radio... commercial, commercial, static, BAM! no doubt's "don't speak" is in mid-chorus and you sing right along to the very end... in no other scenario would you do that, but when you're in the car, it happens. why?

change the scenario. so you are wanting to watch some tv, so you stick in a DVD from season two of the office or volume three of family guy and pick an episode. you get halfway through it and turn it off. however, when that same exact episode is on TBS, you watch the whole episode and laugh harder than you have before. make sense? didn't think so.

media players have evolved and some have acquired a characteristic known as "shuffle," and tv providers have provided a service known as "DVR" which allows one to record and fast forward through programs. these are admirable attempts at achieving an analogous ambience that randomly finding a song or program gives, but unfortunately, they do not succeed. there's nothing quite like the real thing.

take care and thanks for reading.

-jdv

p.s. - thanks to daylight savings, the saying "one hour's sleep before midnight is worth two in the morning," actually makes sense. set your clocks back!