T.V. was a historically important tool that's value was largely squandered in my opinion. What we see as the "evil" of television, is the result of this misuse. I love this clip of Mr. Rogers defending PBS funding in front of a Senate Subcomittee in 1969 where he eloquently discussed his vision of one way the tool could be (and was) so very valuable to our culture. Of course, while this type of television has continued to exist, it's certainly NOT the rule. I don't have any clue of percentages, but truly educational uses of television must be in the single digits of percentage of total programming.
So, enter the Internet. Even MORE potential in all ways, but of course we see it too is just a tool in the hands of a bunch of foolish apes. I quit watching television about 7 years ago. But I quit it to start playing MMOs. So, while I laugh at people who tell me how silly it is for me to be playing video games and then go on to discuss the latest show they are following, I really don't feel PROUD of the fact that I don't watch that much television. I just see my current crutch for what it is: a better escape.
(in fact, I actually don't spend nearly as much time on MMOs as I used to, but they still are the empty calories in my intellectual diet that I'd be well to do without)
BitTorrent is not illegal. Pirating copyrighted program material is illegal, regardless of the transport layer. AFAIK, you can get a lot of perfectly legal content using BitTorrent. The Octoshape technology that RP uses to stream its programming efficiently has a lot in common with BitTorrent.
In other words, don't equate BitTorrent with "something illegal", equate something illegal with "something illegal". If you're not paying for a feature length film, then it's probably not legal. But if you're purchasing content that's distributed by BitTorrent, then it's probably perfectly legal.
Television has become the #1 public enemy that most people foregoe (sic) their families to welcome home.
Television, as with all inanimate objects (which obviously cannot defend themselves against scapegoatism) frequently become the scapegoats for people's personality defects. Clearly piling personality defect upon personality defect ("two wrongs...") does not fix the underlying problem ("...don't make a 'right'").
I for one exercise my free will to choose wisely what I view. Ergo, I have no need to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
I've all but stopped watching current movies since c. 1980, after growing tired of the insatiable blood lust of revenge films, the blatant racism of Golan-Globus, and the disgustingly poor production values that eroded almost overnight in the rush to worship the seven deadly sins on film. (I now prefer to discover old, high-quality films instead.) Coincidentally (in time, not perchance) the rise of satellite distribution of TV content and the geometric growth of the amount of TV programming available to me gave me more alternatives to the "big three" menu than I could ever watch. This wealth of content made it mandatory to pick and choose.
And pick and choose I did. Among the first to go from my TV schedule were the brainless TV sitcoms that had once helped pass time back when there were a half-dozen or so channels of programing available. These were pushed out mostly by infotainment shows showing on channels like Discovery and History. All things considered, this resulted in a gigantic quantum leap in quality of my TV viewing. As much as half of my TV viewing is infotainment now, with the remaining 2/3 being pure entertainment, and 1/3 being hard news and documentary.
I own four devices that could be called "TV sets" — a newer HDTV display with several monitor inputs, a 10-year-old NTSC TV with several monitor inputs, a NTSC TV with VCR and monitor input (I got for free), and a hand-held 2" NTSC TV with a monitor input. And since the demise of NTSC, all but one of these devices has become a monitor-only device. (I don't have enough RF cables to feed the TV tuner of my HD set, so it functions as a monitor too.) They are all in the same room, BTW.
I simply don't use these as self-contained TV sets. I got them specifically to be used as line monitors, being fed signals from other devices. You see, since the home VCR (later DVR) became available to me, I have been "time shifting" my TV viewing. I often record shows that I choose later on not to view, and by skipping commercials I spend a lot less time viewing what I choose to view.
I have never felt it to be even remotely difficult to pick and choose what I watch, or to choose to watch nothing at all...
I understand where you're coming from and agree with most of your points, but television itself is just a portal. Undoubtedly, is it a portal used primarily to promote consumerism but I think that most people with any sense of individuality can keep from being "programmed". I don't believe that television executives and programmers are more intelligent than I am. I don't see the focus of television being the "three core evils" that you mention ("ignorance" by its definition, perhaps shouldn't be considered an "evil" since it is not really an active form of malevolence, though it obviously could lead to such ends). The primary focus of TV in the United States is to sell advertising airtime and the advertisers' goal is to give us unrealistic ideals and desires in order to sell their products, as you have stated. I don't think that "television is programming us to be dysfunctional, reactionary, desensitized, etc..." much more than any other form of popular culture - including music. I don't really watch a lot of television, but it certainly could never degenerate my ability to exercise imagination. Also, I have never witnessed a roomful of people becoming hypnotized by a TV being turned on unless it was some sort of emergency breaking-news broadcast or sporting event that those particular people were interested in. Of course, if one were to turn on a cartoon program or Sesame Street in a roomful of toddlers, the children may very well stop to watch. If some people are dysfunctional, desensitized, sexually frustrated, etc., it's spurious to allege that it is intrinsically because of television; people should accept some responsibility for their own well-being. Well, just my two cents.
Yep, yep! I grew up watching tons of TV and apart from the occasional restraining order and obvious misunderstandings I turned out just fine!
I understand where you're coming from and agree with most of your points, but television itself is just a portal. Undoubtedly, is it a portal used primarily to promote consumerism but I think that most people with any sense of individuality can keep from being "programmed". I don't believe that television executives and programmers are more intelligent than I am. I don't see the focus of television being the "three core evils" that you mention ("ignorance" by its definition, perhaps shouldn't be considered an "evil" since it is not really an active form of malevolence, though it obviously could lead to such ends). The primary focus of TV in the United States is to sell advertising airtime and the advertisers' goal is to give us unrealistic ideals and desires in order to sell their products, as you have stated. I don't think that "television is programming us to be dysfunctional, reactionary, desensitized, etc..." much more than any other form of popular culture - including music. I don't really watch a lot of television, but it certainly could never degenerate my ability to exercise imagination. Also, I have never witnessed a roomful of people becoming hypnotized by a TV being turned on unless it was some sort of emergency breaking-news broadcast or sporting event that those particular people were interested in. Of course, if one were to turn on a cartoon program or Sesame Street in a roomful of toddlers, the children may very well stop to watch. If some people are dysfunctional, desensitized, sexually frustrated, etc., it's spurious to allege that it is intrinsically because of television; people should accept some responsibility for their own well-being. Well, just my two cents.
Experiencing repeated stimuli is called conditioning; conditioning with a fixed set of parameters is called programming.
Television is focused on the three core evils in society: ignorance, greed, and anger. How can any good come of this?
Television gives us reasons to fear each other and ourselves, it sows doubts as to whether or not we are happy, successful, attractive, and shows us examples of silicone and plastic standards that many people sacrifice themselves to.
The educational and spiritual material available on television is slim and becoming none.
Television is programming us to be dysfunctional, reactionary, desensitized to violence, sexually frustrated and insatiable, distrustful of anyone different from us, degenerates our ability to exercise imagination, and has created a sub-culture of couch potatoes, and net tomatoes (sorry JrZy, not you.)
Television has become ubiquitous; TVs in many rooms in the house; TVs in bars, gas stations, supermarkets, and even along the roadways; TV is the closest reality to Huxley's Soma for the masses. Turn on a TV in a room full of adults (much more so, children) and the room will go quiet, faces will become blank, most will shift focus from anything to the TV, until it's turned off.
Television has become the #1 public enemy that most people forego their families to welcome home.
I understand where you're coming from and agree with most of your points, but television itself is just a portal. Undoubtedly, is it a portal used primarily to promote consumerism but I think that most people with any sense of individuality can keep from being "programmed". I don't believe that television executives and programmers are more intelligent than I am. I don't see the focus of television being the "three core evils" that you mention ("ignorance" by its definition, perhaps shouldn't be considered an "evil" since it is not really an active form of malevolence, though it obviously could lead to such ends). The primary focus of TV in the United States is to sell advertising airtime and the advertisers' goal is to give us unrealistic ideals and desires in order to sell their products, as you have stated. I don't think that "television is programming us to be dysfunctional, reactionary, desensitized, etc..." much more than any other form of popular culture - including music. I don't really watch a lot of television, but it certainly could never degenerate my ability to exercise imagination. Also, I have never witnessed a roomful of people becoming hypnotized by a TV being turned on unless it was some sort of emergency breaking-news broadcast or sporting event that those particular people were interested in. Of course, if one were to turn on a cartoon program or Sesame Street in a roomful of toddlers, the children may very well stop to watch. If some people are dysfunctional, desensitized, sexually frustrated, etc., it's spurious to allege that it is intrinsically because of television; people should accept some responsibility for their own well-being. Well, just my two cents.
We quit cable when we moved to California and haven't missed it a bit, except for PBS and the abilty to tune in an occasional Tiger Woods tournament on a Sunday afternoon. As for PBS, all I neded to do is upgrade the antenna stuffed up in the attic and I should be OK, but it's a matter of time and priorities. A lot of their stuff I can stream anyway.
I do have a home theater setup, however, and watch a lot of DVDs and streaming content from Netflix, Hulu, et al.
I love British shows and my stoopit cable provider doesn't offer BBC America. Alas, UK channels don't allow foreign connections (at least not mine) on their catch up streaming thingies so I torrent.
My favorite so far, Spooks. I think it's called MI-5 here. Love it.
While I am not boycotting TV per se, I do have sentiments to my own cable provider similar to those expressed by HoneyBear.
although in her expression, perhaps she was a bit more articulate and polite than I could be ....
If a child see over 12,000 murders, several hundred rapes, several dozen thousand attacks, fights, conflicts, etc., interspersed by sever hundred thousand (or millin) tailored commercials which are designed to impact and be remembered and acted upon by the time he is 14, what sort of desensitization and ingrained conditioning is that, and how does it impact the way he educates himself and (eventually) raises his own children?
Television is focussed on the three core evils in society: ignorance, greed, and anger. How can any good come of this?
Television gives us reasons to fear each other and ourselves, it sows doubts as to whether or not we are happy, successful, attractive, and shows us examples of silicone and plastic standards that many people sacrifice themselves to.
I love British shows and my stoopit cable provider doesn't offer BBC America. Alas, UK channels don't allow foreign connections (at least not mine) on their catch up streaming thingies so I torrent.
My favorite so far, Spooks. I think it's called MI-5 here. Love it.
We shut off cable TV (which means no TV)... um 2 months ago now?
We are so glad.
Now we watch shows we choose to watch. We love Netflix. We watch stuff on the computer a bit... still working out how to connect the PC laptop to the TV... the MacBook has no problem.
We are re-discovering book reading. What to read next? How's that book? Talk about it a bit.
More quiet time. More time to talk. More time to sit outside in the screen tent.
No more strongly manipulated melodramatic news!
I did love the Discover channels and the DIY and the new Green Planet... but so far, there has not been one thing that we miss.
No more commercials demanding that we live a certain lifestyle. No more unbid commercials about food and cars and fashion and uppermiddleclassness and endless plastic new things and HORROR movies and TV shows full of violence and evil...
It's not just good for us... it is imperative that we cut off the methods that drive us to mindless consumerism.
My new roomie watched tv every night, all night, and he likes me to sit and watch with him. I don't turn on the tv at all when I am home during the day. I can't stand it when it's on just for the noise.
I know I've posted before on this topic - here's another stab at reasons for abhoring television.
T watches some TV, but not much. I'll watch it, sometimes, for a few minutes if someone else turns it on, then get up and go somewhere else.
In my first ever psychology class, way back in the days before the first space shuttle explosion, I learned the following.
Experiencing repeated stimuli is called conditioning; conditioning with a fixed set of parameters is called programming.
If a child see over 12,000 murders, several hundred rapes, several dozen thousand attacks, fights, conflicts, etc., interspersed by sever hundred thousand (or millin) tailored commercials which are designed to impact and be remembered and acted upon by the time he is 14, what sort of desensitization and ingrained conditioning is that, and how does it impact the way he educates himself and (eventually) raises his own children?
Television is focussed on the three core evils in society: ignorance, greed, and anger. How can any good come of this?
Television gives us reasons to fear each other and ourselves, it sows doubts as to whether or not we are happy, successful, attractive, and shows us examples of silicone and plastic standards that many people sacrifice themselves to.
The educational and spiritual material available on television is slim and becoing none.
Television is programming us to be dysfunctional, reactionary, desensitized to violence, sexually frustrated and insatiable, distrustful of anyone different from us, degenerates our ability to exercise imagination, and has created a sub-culture of couch potatoes, and net tomatoes (sorry JrZy, not you.)
Television has become ubiquitous; TVs in many rooms in the house; TVs in bars, gas stations, supermarkets, and even along the roadways; TV is the closest reality to Huxley's Soma for the masses. Turn on a TV in a room full of adults (much more so, children) and the room will go quiet, faces will become blank, most will shift focus from anything to the TV, until it's turned off.
I have worked with people who didn't actually watch TV, they "flipped", for hours; flipping from channel to channel, image to image; one woman just held the scan button down and sat there, playing a game on her cell phone with one hand, and flipping with the other - staring alternately into the phone and then into the TV.
Television has become the #1 public enemy that most people foregoe their families to welcome home.
As Michael Franti and The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy so eloquently state below, is the drug of the nation - well, now the drug of the world.
When I left my first husband, I took the TV and took it straight to the dump. Our lives revolved around game schedules, etc. After that, I didn't have a tv until just recently (9 years). Now we have one that sits in the living room. When we first brought it up from the basement, we watched 2 1/2 Men each night and some PBS stuff, now we only watch the antique road show. It is just so nice and peaceful without it blaring it's commercials. I don't like the invasions it seems to have in our peaceful home. I'm REALLY glad we don't watch it.
