Tonight is the “Top Chef” Season 10 (Seattle) finale, and I can’t wait to find out if it was Kristen (who was WAY too nice/willing to take the high road/well-mannered Asian girl when she was eliminated during “Restaurant Wars”, and whose inevitable victory in “Last Chance Kitchen” reminds me that hey, this is “reality” television, not reality television) or Brooke (who is so freaking nice that it’s almost impossible to NOT want her to win, even the fact that she met her husband by hiring him to work for her and clearly is much, much more Alpha than she ever comes across, even though she’s probably still really freaking nice).
It’s also got me thinking. Specifically, about the fact that I am:
1. Stuck at work for at least another hour (meaning, at best, I will start watching the episode late).
2. The Eastern and Central time zones already know who won.
3. #2 means that I have to get home without finding out who won.
Obviously, this isn’t actually that difficult a feat – not many of my friends watch “Top Chef”, and this means that I didn’t have to post up any spoiler warnings to anyone about texting me about who wins (unlike, for example, live sporting events, when I am often texting/gchatting with my good friend Jon, and who almost always seems to be about five seconds ahead of me on the broadcast. I am constantly scolding him for spoiling a good play for me right before it happens. Thus far it has not deterred him.). But it does mean avoiding social media, which has become a moderately significant part of my life – because I do have enough Facebook or Twitter friends that one of them could accidentally spoil the result for me.
The immediacy of these media, combined with our general acceptance of time-shifting as the new normal for television viewing (seriously, what do you watch live anymore other than maybe the news or sports?), however, means that the battle between the screens is no longer just a battle for your attention; it’s a battle for the very way you will consume media in the future.
Are the immediacy and electronic community of social media worth the risk of a spoiler? To a lot of people, the answer seems to be yes. Or, at least, it forces them to watch something live – which really is what old media wants in the first place. The more likely you are to be spoiled by social media, the more likely you are to watch live, so it can’t be spoiled (and so you can also participate in the spoiling inadvertently for your friends who did not choose to watch the show live).
Maybe someday that will be my answer. But for the moment, I’m more willing to cut myself off from social media for a few hours (or, in the extreme case of “The Dark Knight Rises”, I embargoed myself from all social media for three days until I had the opportunity to get to the theater and see the movie) and enjoy a pure, unspoiled viewing experience.
In other words, don’t fucking ruin the Top Chef finale for me. I’m serious.
