I've been hearing for years how DVR (Digital Video Recording) is the best thing since sliced bread, and I'm one of the many who feel this way.  I don't think I could ever go back to just watching live TV.  In fact, I think I could go back to slicing my own bread before I'd give up DVR.  So in a way, it's BETTER than sliced bread.  I mean, slicing your own bread for a sandwich would take about 20 seconds for even the most clumsy of us, I'd imagine.  But for an hour television show, I can save up to 20 minutes by skipping the commercials.  Even if there is a TV show on that I want to watch, sometimes I just start recording the show and do something else for 20 minutes and then start watching the show, skipping all the commercials.  It's great.

But there are definitely unexpected consequences from depending on your DVR like this.  I've started noticing little things that are a direct result of using the DVR too much in other areas of my life and in my personality that I'm not entirely comfortable with.  Here are just a few:

I expect to be able to rewind EVERYTHING, so I don't pay attention to anything.
I mentioned this before, but one night I was dreaming, and in the middle of the dream, there was a point where I completely missed what had happened.  So in my dream, I somehow pressed "rewind" and watched the scene in my dream over again.  This is also further evidence that I am, in fact, a robot.  I'm really taking it for granted that you can't just rewind everything that you miss.  Just this past weekend when I was at the movie theater, I was distracted for a second and missed about three seconds of dialogue.  No problem, I thought, I'll just find that remote and... oh wait.  And I can't tell you how many times I've reached for the "rewind" button on my car radio because I wasn't paying attention to the traffic report.  I think there will be a new form of A.D.D. called A.D.D.V.R.D.

A 15 second commercial is too long.
I love the fact that I can fast forward through all the commercials.  Even when I'm watching live TV, I futilely try to fast forward through them out of habit (see above).  And it has made my tolerance for them even smaller.  Even a fifteen second commercial seems like an eternity.  It's like... "okay already, I get it... Barilla makes good pasta... yes, it's the pasta of Italy... c'mon!"  In fact, I think I see the product in a negative light when I have to sit through their commercials, so in essence, these commercials are having the opposite of their intended effect.

Also, I have no idea of any new products since 2007.  Like apparently there's this yogurt out there that makes you poop... who made that?  And why? 

I have a feeling that they're going to start making commercials that are just 2 minutes of some dude miming in slow motion to cater to guys like me so that at 16x speed I get a 7.5 second commercial in real time that I have to watch very closely (lest I miss the continuation of the show I'm watching after the commercials end).

Watching live football is extremely boring. 
I can watch a 3 hour football game in 40 minutes, including rewinding and watching key plays in super slow motion.  Before DVR I never knew how much time was spent putting the ball on the line of scrimmage... huddling... coming back to the line of scrimmage...  changing the play at the line of scrimmage... ordering an espresso at the line of scrimmage... Now I just wait until the guy gets tackled, push FF twice on the DVR, count 4 "Mississippi's" and press play, and voila... next play.  But on the rare occasion I watch a live game, I am bored to tears... and I realize that in any 60 minute game, there's actually only about 7 minutes of actual running around.

Which makes me wonder if I'd enjoy watching golf more if I just fast forwarded until I saw the ball in the air or rolling to the hole after a putt.  I mean, the rest of it is pretty boring... practice swings... judging the lay of the green... I could probably watch a whole afternoon of golf in about 9 minutes by cutting all that out.

I save shows I have no intention of ever watching 
It's almost too easy to fill up your recording space with just nonsense TV.  For those who don't know... you only have a limited amount of recording space on your DVR.  If you use it up, it stops recording or will write over what you've already recorded.  But shows that never interested me before become "must see" programs because I don't have to be there to watch it live.  And there is this evil question that the DVR asks when you do record a show that catches your interest... "Record this show on any day in any time slot?" 

Heck YEAH!  Who wouldn't want to see every episode "The Deadliest Catch" that is broadcast anywhere on cable in any given week?  Two things I learned: One, they show that show a lot... and two, you can indeed get seasick from just watching a show about crab fishing for 6 hours straight.

And whoever set the standard of how much space to give you in your DVR must know that it is always going to be about an hour too little.   I have pained over which shows to erase... the one with the 5 minute clip of how to grout tile or the travel show that shows a 40 second clip of a place I want to visit... because I can't erase that movie that I completely forgot I wanted to see in the theaters 8 years ago but now that I can see it for free on cable I have to watch.

So for those out there who are considering getting some sort of DVR, let this be a warning.  Yes, the advantages of such a device are many, but there is a ying to this yang... a fly in the ointment... a price to pay the piper... a cliché in this sentence... Call your local subscription provider with care and eyes open.