The perils of digital spoilers

There’s a new danger on the horizon – the digital spoiler. We all hate having our date with appointment TV spoiled by knowing the result beforehand. Living in Asia it’s always been perilous to follow series’ like American Idol or The Apprentice, which may have screened days or months previously in the US. But now technology is really ganging up on me to thwart every delicious surprise. I give up in the face of multiple digital technologies conspiring against me:

• It all started with the arrival of addictive reality TV…who will get voted off? Who will triumph?
• Soon the mainstream media realized that reality TV news was hotter than reality world news. Headline spoilers everywhere.
• Next the news and RSS aggregators ramped up the volume of headlines
• Then they took the streets. I can’t ride a bus, visit a mall or wait in a lift lobby without seeing a screen.
• With PVR time-shift viewing and personal media players, it’s game over