David Carr, writing in the New York Times, has written something that I have been feeling for a couple of years now: there is simply too much available media.  That is, given the increasing availability of films, books, TV shows and music delivered directly to the home via the Internet, cable TV, ebook readers and, of course, mailed Netflix DVDS, one is forced to decide from a growing list of “must see” media what to view/read.  The desire to locate and consume the “good stuff” (however you define it) actually makes media a chore.

That both recent and ancient television is, or will soon be, a few clicks away just adds to a buffet of media of all types I can’t possibly finish. My iTunes library would not fit on my new iPad because I have about 75 gigabytes of music, 20,000 songs or so, many of which I have yet to hear.

Our ability to produce media has outstripped our ability to consume it. The average photograph now gets looked at less than once simply because there is almost zero cost and effort to producing one.