Streamliner
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My favorite way to watch things is with a skip button.
I could spin throughThe Princess Diarieson DVD to rewatch the foot-pop kiss scene over and over again.
I could jump past the commercials ofAmerican Idolon DVR.
When streaming services came along, I could drag my cursor and be three scenes ahead.
I am a serial skimmer.
This has bled into the way I watch things.
I dont really have a reason for doing this.
Maybe its a sign that Im afraid of commitment.
I could just be a zoomer with a poor attention span.
Perhaps Netflix bloat has something to do with it?
Whatever the case, shows and movies just move slowly for my taste, so I skip.
I acknowledge that this is a patchy way to consume TV.
My film-schooled older sister makes fun of me nearly constantly.
Still, Im not planning on changing my ways any time soon.
What if, maybe,just maybe, the skip button could be universal?
Ten seconds forwards and backwards across the board, thats all I ask.
It wouldnt even be that big of a logistical leap.
All of themajor streaming platformshave options to jump ten seconds ahead except for one.
In true its not streaming, its HBO fashion, HBO Max does 15-second skips.
I dont just want the big players to get in line, though.
Many of the shady, illegal streaming sites have an option to skip backwards ten seconds already.
Comcast Xfinitys streaming option, meanwhile, has buttons that put you 15 seconds back or 30 seconds forward.
Not only are both of them above ten, theyre also asymmetrical.
And its the only platform where I can reliably catch up onAmerican Crime Story: Impeachment.
At this point, you might be wondering: Why, specifically, ten seconds?
The goal is to get to the point, not miss it entirely.
Impractically, ten is a nice round number.
Plenty of wonderful things in our world are in base ten.
Weve got ten fingers, ten toes, and binary numbers.
The metric system, which makes far more sense than the imperial system, works in tens.
Why should skip buttons be any different?
But its an imprecise way to skip.
It was even worse in the heyday of physical media.
And forget about Be kind, rewind.
These days, streamers just preserve your place for you.
Innovation is a beautiful thing.
Im just asking for one more tiny improvement, thats all.
I doubt my plea for the universal ten-second skip will ever be realized.
Im just one person shouting an idea into an endless void of ideas.
