Thanks to the life-changing DVR and the overwhelming laziness and impatience among Americans, advertisers are now forking over more cash for fewer ads during prime time television. Although the television numbers may look grim to advertisers, they always seem to find an audience in other areas of everyday life.

A recent Advertising Age study found that fourth-quarter and first-quarter estimates of C3 ratings—also known as the number of viewers who actually watched commercials during prime time programs instead of fast-forwarding through them or switching channels—showed large audience erosion.

All broadcast networks sold ad inventory at higher prices for the coming season, suggesting that DVRs have made it more challenging to reach consumers. It seems just as social media is making it easier—maybe too easy—to reach people and target consumers via Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, other technology is making reaching them worlds more difficult.

Does this mean we haven’t really changed all that much in terms of reaching audiences? Advertisers can’t seem to tell me to buy stuff during The Office anymore, but they’ve more than made up for it by telling me to buy some Ray-Bans after I said I like going to the beach on Facebook. It’s difficult to say if that new intrusion has made up the difference for all of my DVR fast-forwarding. Maybe it’s some kind of twisted ad karma.

Nevertheless, media buyers will still worry themselves to death while scavenging the audience wasteland that is television. Don’t despair, you still have live TV! You still have contest shows like American Idol! Outside of those, just be okay with the fact that you can run an ad on my phone at lunchtime that tells me I’m only a block away from Subway. Until Google’s phone expertise allows them to whisper targeted ads into someone’s ear when they’re on a phone call, you’ll just have to be happy with sports ads and a bit of creepy intrusion to get a captive audience. Trust me, advertisers, you’re not having any trouble reaching people.