Tivo – television on your own terms. What would the world be like for kids that grow up knowing nothing else? Alan Taylor writes about his 3 year old’s view of television:

First – she doesn’t watch much TV (an allotted hour per day), but when she does watch it, she gets a choice of a recent episode of any of her favorite pre-recorded shows (current favorites are Dora the Explorer and Caillou), and she can watch it at any time of day. We get to choose what shows we’d like to allow her to watch, set up a Season Pass, and we’re done.

Second – Commercials are an infrequent novelty to her. We always fast-forward through commercials, or watch non-commercial shows. When she does occasionally see a full commercial, she’s fascinated, and will often ask us to stop so she can see what’s going on. How can we demonstrate to her the evils of commercial interruption, when she has never had to experience it?

Third – Ignorance of Schedules/Programming – she has no idea when her favorite shows are on, never has. She gets quite confused when we are watching a non-TiVo TV, and she asks to watch “a kids show,” and we have to explain that this TV won’t do what ours at home does. We’ve sometimes shortened this explanation to “This TV is broken”, which she seems to accept, and will wait until we get home to watch our “fixed” TV.

Fourth – pausing taken for granted. She is now the master of paused TV – saying “Can you please stop this for a minute – I have to use the Potty”.