RadioSure

The other day I discovered a little program called “RadioSure” that could stream radio stations from the internet. I found out that RadioSure featured approximately 12,000 radio stations from around the world. I excitedly typed in jazz music and 474 stations pop out from different countires: US, Russia, France, Chile and a host of others. The sheer number of it was staggering. Now which one do I listen to? Then I thought: while it may initially be interesting to think that with this nifty little program I can listen in on 12,000 or more stations, I couldn’t help but think: Does the sheer number of choices cause other people to be turned off by the idea simply because of the difficulty in choosing from so many choices?

According to Barry Schwartz author of the paradox of choice: “Infinite choice is paralyzing and exhausting to the human psyche. It leads us to set unreasonably high expectations, question our choices before we even make them and blame our failures entirely on ourselves.” In certain instances people faced with too many options are no better and may sometimes be less satisfied than if they had fewer options. I think I’ll stick to my MP3 player.

Linus Madamba
Post#1