Back then, my self-anointed intellectual take was that 'nothing is good or bad. That it depends on how we choose to put it to use.' This was pretty much a blanket answer I used when asked about the blackness/whiteness of anything. While that answer is still applicable to many things, as i'm growing up, i'm realizing that in case of Television, this answer is actually - bullshit.
The reason i say this is not because things on TV are too sexist or too violent.
It's because of the fact that - says my still self-anointed intellectual brain - if we were a rational people, the Television would not have been such a popular invention.
Think about it OR if your nerves are dead from a series of images beamed at you 24 x 7, answer these questions:
It's because of the fact that - says my still self-anointed intellectual brain - if we were a rational people, the Television would not have been such a popular invention.
Think about it OR if your nerves are dead from a series of images beamed at you 24 x 7, answer these questions:
1. What is the most addictive mechanical device in your home?
2. What activity, no matter how satisfactory the experience itself, leaves you irritated?
3. Which service promises you a bundle of choice and still manages to disappoint you?
4. Which device makes you detest any form of physical movement?
5. What is the machine that distracts you most from your goal (long or short term)?
The answer to all these questions is - The TV. Assuming you, my fleeting reader, aren't an obsessive compulsive cleaner and your answer wasn't some sort of cleaning contraption.
Okay, lets try this another way -
Argument based on both on a daily level and a macro-lifestyle level -
People who do not watch TV, who do not say - "Ooh! Friends is on!", "Ooh! Gossip Girl is on!", "Ooh! KBC is on!" are more likely to do something creative, to go out - in short, to actually HAVE a life.
These aren't statistics - it's logic.
TV - some might counter - gives us exposure to what is happening in the Gobi Dessert or in Lindsay Lohan's life. But it does lead us to ignorance of what is happening in our neighbor's life.
Again - no statistics, just plain logic - the more you watch TV, the less likely you are to ACTUALLY visit the Gobi Desert or even your local playground. Also, while we're at it, who watches the Discovery Channel as much as, say, Star World or Zee TV? Exactly.
Not only does TV addict and turn us into almost-degenerates (temporarily in the least dangerous case), it is also an evil ruiner of all things good -
an easy example - dinner.
a personal one - the movies. You know i'm going to expand on that -
I have this magazine called "the Picturegoer". This edition was published in 1953-54 and it's editorial was concerned of the effect round-the-clock TV broadcast was going to do to the Movie Theatres.
This article was naive and said that the movies would have to resort to antics like widescreen and 3d to attract the audiences. The truth is much worse.
The movies had to swallow the evil pill - MARKETING.
Today - the more you promote a movie (a major part of which HAPPENS ON TV) the more people will come to see it. Soon begun the "newer! better! sooner!" era in moviedom. Movies, now, promote themselves like donkeys in mating season (Yah! I have actually seen one!)
Not to mention, a movie's fate would be sealed in it's first week. It is hard to believe that there was a time when movies were allowed to be savored by theaters and audiences alike. Do you think Casablanca would've "clicked" in a week? Would Gone With the Wind?
We might as well forget about movies like Citizen Kane.
In this time... Ooh! Ooh! It's 11! Grey's Anatomy is on!
