New for the Noughties 2

New for the Noughties. A series of posts on seminal moments from the last decade as it creeps to a close.

Good morning. Yesterday on New for the Noughties we looked at recycling. We will be covering several other key matters over the next few weeks - celebrity, audience elimination programmes, texting to name but three. Find out what today's item is after this short break.

Welcome Back. New for the Noughties will be summarising the last decade in a selection of verbal instants describing those moments we didn't used to have before the turn of the millennium. When we're not standing in our garage looking at cardboard, or PEP symbols on plastic, what else are we faced with that was no challenge to previous generations?

Yes, it's the power of repetition. Here's a short-film with a celebrity monologue about the problem.

ENG
Charlie Brooker walks down the street lamenting the need to produce all our material for the ADD generation.

Repetition. We can't get enough of it. We introduce the news with soundbite previews, we read the news, then we go through it item by item with more detail, summarising it on the half hour. We watch a programme called The 100 Worst Moments of the Noughties, counting down from 100 to 1. Every time we hit a number ending in nought we remind you of the previous ten. We think your short-term memory is so poor you will have forgotten the earlier details of a programme you're still watching. Your newspaper or magazine article will have pulled out the best sentence, or the teasiest, and placed it in a box alongside the piece. And, as Peter Preston wrote in the Guardian last Monday, our X-Factor, Pop Idol, Sports Personality programmes all use back story and repetition to massive lengthening effect. A good one hour show now lasts for ever.

Coming up next. After recycling and repetition we look at celebrity, audience elimination programmes and texting. See you tomorrow. To close here's 2 little 2 late, a funny little moment reminding you of the bits of the post you might have missed.

Writer - St
Starring - St
Inspired by - Peter Preston's article in Monday's Guardian
Researcher - Don't be silly

(Over the credits we show small sections of tomorrow's post)