skygiants | (no subject)

This is something I wonder about a lot: what are people's favorite ways to watch things socially? If I sit down with friends and we're like 'let's watch a thing!' my inclination is always to suggest something that I've seen that other people in the group haven't, because I really enjoy watching people watch things for the first time while staring creepily at them out of the corner of my eye to make sure they're laughing at all the good parts. And the first time that I see anything that I super like, my IMMEDIATE next step is to scheme how I can get as many people to watch it with me, as soon as possible. (See: Princess Tutu, and the approximate TEN TIMES with TEN DIFFERENT PEOPLE I watched it all the way through in 2009.)

...then if I do that repeatedly I feel selfish because I assume that is other people's favorite way to watch things too, But perhaps it isn't! Obviously I enjoy socially watching things in many ways, but I'm curious about people's preferences. So I made a poll!

Poll #15811 Watching Stuff Socially

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 78

View Respondents

My favorite way to watch things socially is ....

View Answers

Showing something I've seen and like to somebody else who hasn't seen it
21 (26.9%)

Getting somebody else to show me something they've seen and liked
6 (7.7%)

Rewatching something that the whole group has seen and liked and shouting out all the best quotes in unison
6 (7.7%)

Watching something totally new to all of us. A voyage of discovery!
15 (19.2%)

You dingus, why should I pick a favorite, they're all great!
21 (26.9%)

You dingus, why should you assume that my favorite way to watch things socially involves stuff I LIKE?
3 (3.8%)

UGH, I HATE WATCHING THINGS SOCIALLY.
4 (5.1%)

UGH, I HATE WATCHING THINGS, PERIOD.
2 (2.6%)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The uneven I've seen/you haven't is awful. Not as bad as listening to music I love with people who haven't heard it -- all I can hear is every flaw and stupid lyric and reason they won't like it -- but waiting for people to react to things in ways that I can't make them do? The reality of that is horrible. I remember showing Avatar S1 to a friend who was more interested in knitting as we went and then showed zero reaction to The Storm/Blue Spirit because she wasn't paying enough attention to notice the reveals. The same friend returned my Princess Tutu DVDs to me UNWATCHED after having them for a year. Ugh. And showing another friend The Fall, getting zero feedback from her, and her later confessing she didn't remember a thing. HORRIBLE. Then there was the time those two friends showed me Ten Things I Hate About You and chattered and laughed the whole way through until I snapped at them to shut up because I couldn't understand why I was supposed to love this movie if I couldn't hear the dialogue.

Then there's the "I loved this, you should watch it apart from me" but between anxiety about people not APPRECIATING TRUE ART LIKE TUTU and scars from Veronica Mars fandom battles, I hate that too.

However: Watching things that are new or beloved to both of us, or beloved to you and new to me and also you're being quiet so I can enjoy it, are the stuff great friendships have been built on. And usually done online. Everyone shut up now thank you bye.

I love watching stuff online via chat SO MUCH, because you can flail around happily as much as you like and it doesn't interfere with the audio! That was how I did the majority of my 2009 Tutu-pushing, though I was very lucky that it was a 100% successful push because if anybody hadn't been into it I don't know what I would have done.

I haven't done it much recently, most of my distance-viewing has been through Skype, which was weirdly challenging for me at first because having both sounds come through the computer really magnifies the audio issues. I wish our Deep Space Nine files had subtitles. :(

DS9 is on netflix with subs!

Netflix has subs for most shows. It's great!