Charlier Brooker's new television series based around exposing how a rectangular glowing bullshit machine systematically fucked every aspect of your life began airing six weeks ago. So far it's covered how the hate filled lie-box went about making us fear the world, ruining each individual stage of your life, giving you unreasonable and unobtainable aspirations, ruining your love life, and warping our relationship with technology. The latest episode focused on how TV generally misinformed us through misleading information sensationalism and taking things out of context all the while tarting it up by replacing common looking experts with celebrity presenters who don't even know if what they're being paid to tell you is a lie.
Here's a clip of Charlie watching The Deadliest Warrior:
I stopped watching TV sometime around 1997 and I don't miss it.
I still watch movies, and TV shows on Netflix or DVD, but that means I'm not regularly exposed to TV commercials or TV news or TV talk shows or reality TV.
That shit makes you stupider. It distorts reality in such an insidious way that it's like some kind of anti-knowledge, like a prion that infiltrates your brain and distorts other knowledge to match its own grotesque shape.
Feral on
every person who doesn't like an acquired taste always seems to think everyone who likes it is faking it. it should be an official fallacy.
I'd need to dredge them up, BTW, but I seem to recall reading some studies that showed that there's a negative correlation between exposure to TV news and ability to assess risk.
Obviously, correlation does not equal causation. But either people who watch TV news see the world as more dangerous than it really is because of TV news, or they can watch TV news without gagging on the stupidity because they already see the world as more dangerous than it really is.
I stopped watching TV sometime around 1997 and I don't miss it.
I still watch movies, and TV shows on Netflix or DVD, but that means I'm not regularly exposed to TV commercials or TV news or TV talk shows or reality TV.
That shit makes you stupider. It distorts reality in such an insidious way that it's like some kind of anti-knowledge, like a prion that infiltrates your brain and distorts other knowledge to match its own grotesque shape.
Does DVR'ing everything and fast forwarding through commercials count as this too? Because I still watch about 4 or 5 shows a week, I just never see anything other than the show.
South host on
Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment.
I stopped watching TV sometime around 1997 and I don't miss it.
I still watch movies, and TV shows on Netflix or DVD, but that means I'm not regularly exposed to TV commercials or TV news or TV talk shows or reality TV.
That shit makes you stupider. It distorts reality in such an insidious way that it's like some kind of anti-knowledge, like a prion that infiltrates your brain and distorts other knowledge to match its own grotesque shape.
Does DVR'ing everything and fast forwarding through commercials count as this too? Because I still watch about 4 or 5 shows a week, I just never see anything other than the show.
I dunno, does it? You have more experience than I do with that.
Honestly when I've been in households with DVRs or on-demand cable, I still notice that people sit down to watch TV without having a particular TV show in mind and end up watching some stupid show where they're kicking bachelors off an island because they can't sing or some bullshit like that.
Feral on
every person who doesn't like an acquired taste always seems to think everyone who likes it is faking it. it should be an official fallacy.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
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South hostI obey without questionRegistered Userregular
I stopped watching TV sometime around 1997 and I don't miss it.
I still watch movies, and TV shows on Netflix or DVD, but that means I'm not regularly exposed to TV commercials or TV news or TV talk shows or reality TV.
That shit makes you stupider. It distorts reality in such an insidious way that it's like some kind of anti-knowledge, like a prion that infiltrates your brain and distorts other knowledge to match its own grotesque shape.
Does DVR'ing everything and fast forwarding through commercials count as this too? Because I still watch about 4 or 5 shows a week, I just never see anything other than the show.
I dunno, does it? You have more experience than I do with that.
Honestly when I've been in households with DVRs or on-demand cable, I still notice that people sit down to watch TV without having a particular TV show in mind and end up watching some stupid show where they're kicking bachelors off an island because they can't sing or some bullshit like that.
Oh. Yeah, I don't do that. I watch what I sat down to watch, then either switch the TV to Netflix, or turn it off.
South host on
Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment.
In some ways isn't watching television like going to a performance? Would some of the problems presented by TV also be present if we could hypothetically instantly teleport to plays, concerts, or sports games at-will?
I remember Mildred in Fahrenheit 451 frequently participated in a kind of telecommunication play, an activity which Bradbury painted in a negative light. Is the problem that, when presented with the ability to view or engage in fictional scenarios at-will, most people would rather neglect reality for fantasy?
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Podlyyou unzipped me! it's all coming back! i don't like it!Registered Userregular
edited March 2011
I would say that it isn't television per se, but rather that we have taken the luxury of bourgeois life -- free time -- and turned ourselves into entertainment consumers. Every medium -- music, television, the internet -- seems to exist vampirically on our desire to escape anything requiring effort on our part. When the state funds the medium, it tends not to be so bad. NPR and PBS are awesome! But when the free market caters to our whims, we seem intent on destroying ourselves.
And I'm with shaz: the internet has probably had a net zero effect on me. The internet has totally shaped who I am in a good way, but, while I don't have a tv and I read a lot of interesting and informative blogs and online sites and use the internet as a font of wisdom, I spend a significantly LARGER chunk of time reading stupid tumblr sites and posting on the forum when I don't even really want to.
The book I linked above compares TV to other visual entertainment (plays and movies, mostly). It was written in the 1970s, so he didn't have access to MRI or fMRI data, and at that time there was less overlap between movie and TV production techniques as there is now. But what the book argues is that plays have contextual cues that remind you that you're watching something that is not real - the stage, the audience, the theater itself. People watching TV show less brain activity (as measured by EEG) and less eye and head movement that people watching movies. The hypothesis presented is that TV gives you images with high verisimilitude but presented in such a way as to impair critical evaluation of those images - basically, it is better than either movies or live theater at conflating the fictional with the real.
Feral on
every person who doesn't like an acquired taste always seems to think everyone who likes it is faking it. it should be an official fallacy.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
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JeanHeartbroken papa bearGatineau, QuébecRegistered Userregular
edited March 2011
I dont have cable, not even the most basic of package. Not because I cant afford it, because I dont want it. I use my TV to play XBOX and watch movies. When I want to watch the hockey game, I go out. I spend way more time on the Internet than on my TV, that is for damn sure.
If my TV broke tomorrow I wouldn't really give a fuck. If my computer broke, I'd repair or get a new one immediately.
Jean on
"You won't destroy us, You won't destroy our democracy. We are a small but proud nation. No one can bomb us to silence. No one can scare us from being Norway. This evening and tonight, we'll take care of each other. That's what we do best when attacked'' - Jens Stoltenberg
AegisFear My DanceOvershot Toronto, Landed in OttawaRegistered Userregular
edited March 2011
Surprised there's no mention of Robert Putnam & Bowling Alone: America's Declining Social Capital in the OP. While also exploring a number of related issues, including sprawl & generational changes, Putnam back in 1995 traced a (or the most significant of the bunch) rather large contribution of television watching to declining social capital and civic engagement in Western/American society from previous eras.
I think the internet has done a lot more to "ruin my life", by this definition.
I mean, I tend to zone out during commercials. And I don't see how, by itself, watching a TV show during a broadcast is worse than watching it on DVD from Netflix. Sure, it's more convenient the other way (usually), but I don't think one rots my brain faster than the other. Indeed, most of my television is just having it run in the background while I eat, cook, read books, or....that's right...browse the internet.
On the other hand, I make the conscious choice to browse forums, read things, etc. When you lie awake at night thinking about the Treaty of Riga article on Wikipedia, you've got a problem.
Honestly, TV has made my life better. I have things I can talk about, I know a lot of things as they happen, and I've learned a lot from Food Network, Discovery, ect. The only cancer that TV shows make is "Reality TV." Jersey Shore, any of those love shows like "I Love New York" "Shot of Love with Tila Tequila" ect.
Obviously, correlation does not equal causation. But either people who watch TV news see the world as more dangerous than it really is because of TV news, or they can watch TV news without gagging on the stupidity because they already see the world as more dangerous than it really is.
In some ways isn't watching television like going to a performance? Would some of the problems presented by TV also be present if we could hypothetically instantly teleport to plays, concerts, or sports games at-will?
I remember Mildred in Fahrenheit 451 frequently participated in a kind of telecommunication play, an activity which Bradbury painted in a negative light. Is the problem that, when presented with the ability to view or engage in fictional scenarios at-will, most people would rather neglect reality for fantasy?
I mean, I tend to zone out during commercials. And I don't see how, by itself, watching a TV show during a broadcast is worse than watching it on DVD from Netflix. Sure, it's more convenient the other way (usually), but I don't think one rots my brain faster than the other. Indeed, most of my television is just having it run in the background while I eat, cook, read books, or....that's right...browse the internet.
Exposure to commercials would be one difference... unless you're using a DVR/On-Demand service to skip past them.
Feral on
every person who doesn't like an acquired taste always seems to think everyone who likes it is faking it. it should be an official fallacy.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
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PwnanObrienHe's right, life sucks.Registered Userregular
edited March 2011
Consider the fact that there are people who would watch this:
I'd need to dredge them up, BTW, but I seem to recall reading some studies that showed that there's a negative correlation between exposure to TV news and ability to assess risk.
Obviously, correlation does not equal causation. But either people who watch TV news see the world as more dangerous than it really is because of TV news, or they can watch TV news without gagging on the stupidity because they already see the world as more dangerous than it really is.
I feel like I'm being trolled, here. Is there really a segment about hyperbolic television fear-mongering on a television series about how television has ruined our lives?
Surprised there's no mention of Robert Putnam & Bowling Alone: America's Declining Social Capital in the OP. While also exploring a number of related issues, including sprawl & generational changes, Putnam back in 1995 traced a (or the most significant of the bunch) rather large contribution of television watching to declining social capital and civic engagement in Western/American society from previous eras.
That's because putnam's conclusions don't necessarily seem all that neat and tidy anymore in light of emerging social media.
Eat it You Nasty Pig. on
it was the smallest on the list but
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
Honestly I don't get the hatred for advertisements. Especially now, with how absurd they're getting, each ad is like a 30 second story that I don't have to pay attention to if I don't want to.
plus you get to think about the life of a man who gets paid in Trident gum
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BobCescaIs a girlBirmingham, UKRegistered Userregular
I feel like I'm being trolled, here. Is there really a segment about hyperbolic television fear-mongering on a television series about how television has ruined our lives?
Yes. It's kinda the point. At it's heart, this is a comedy show by Charlie Brooker in the same vein as his Screenwipe stuff.
I would say that it isn't television per se, but rather that we have taken the luxury of bourgeois life -- free time -- and turned ourselves into entertainment consumers. Every medium -- music, television, the internet -- seems to exist vampirically on our desire to escape anything requiring effort on our part. When the state funds the medium, it tends not to be so bad. NPR and PBS are awesome! But when the free market caters to our whims, we seem intent on destroying ourselves.
The thing with television is that it is far more prone to lowest common denominator shit. The internet provides room for non-dumb stuff, tv doesn't.
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Muse Among MenSuburban Bunny Princess?Its time for a new shtick Registered Userregular
edited March 2011
Since I got internet I stopped watching tv with exception of a few select shows. Many of my friends are similar. We are all in high-school; I wonder if we are becoming a tricky demographic for advertisers and tv people? We all will sit down and watch something on occasion, but we can't really talk about it to one another because invariably enough people will have not seen the program/commercial in question.
I think I watch more television online really. I scout out reviews or message boards to get an idea of what I would like and being that most of the shows I do watch are worth discussion in some capacity, end up chatting about it afterward. Are most people like this, or would that only be the case within specific age groups?
I used to watch a lot of television when I was little though. Mixed bag I would say.
I would say that it isn't television per se, but rather that we have taken the luxury of bourgeois life -- free time -- and turned ourselves into entertainment consumers. Every medium -- music, television, the internet -- seems to exist vampirically on our desire to escape anything requiring effort on our part. When the state funds the medium, it tends not to be so bad. NPR and PBS are awesome! But when the free market caters to our whims, we seem intent on destroying ourselves.
The thing with television is that it is far more prone to lowest common denominator shit. The internet provides room for non-dumb stuff, tv doesn't.
I suppose that depends on what you mean by 'dumb', but there are plenty of things on television that are relatively smart. Either because they're well-written and -produced entertainment or because they're genuinely educational to some degree or another. Sometimes even both of those things simultaneously. There's a lot of dreck on television, certainly, but I would wager any number of American Dollars you'd care to front that there is vastly more on the internet. The difference is that television is (mostly*) locked into a fixed schedule of shows with fixed periods of inescapable* advertising and organized according to a difficult-to-navigate system that is only occasionally and loosely grouped by any meaningful association between offerings. The internet, on the other hand, has search engines to take you to exactly what you want the very moment that you want it. If you don't want to watch an hour's worth of videos of kids who can't really sing/dance/act/play-the-lute on youtube then you are more than free to instantly transport yourself to the online version of Physics Review Letters B or whatever.
*This is less true nowadays. With the advent of non-pay-per-view on-demand services, DVR, and listing searches TV is getting closer to being able to give you whatever slice of the ten thousand shows that come on at some point during the week on some channel whenever you want it.
Television isn't any worse than anything else, in and of itself. It's full of shit, but everything is full of shit. You can find the gold in there if you go digging. The problem with television is that it's always there and it's only a button away. You turn that thing on and there's something there to - nominally - entertain you. You don't have to do shit. You don't even have to think about what kind of entertainment you might want; just turn it on and shit's going to stream out at you until you stumble away from it. There is no other form of entertainment which is so easily accessed and requires so little effort on the part of the consumer. And because it is zero-effort entertainment, people love the fuck out of it. It's not good, most of the time. It's usually barely even entertaining. But it's there and you don't have to do anything or make any decisions to make it happen. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, and I don't think it's anyone's right to police humanity to make sure that they are only entertaining themselves with sufficiently erudite subject matter.
The problem is that people don't give a fuck, by and large. If you took away Fox News do you suppose that the masses who believe every word out of the anchors' mouths would suddenly up and start watching Al Jazeera and reading a sampling of news feeds from variously-aligned sources? Fuck no. They'd read their local paper and believe whatever the radio news man and the pastor on Sunday said, because that's what people did before Fox News. Those were, maybe, a little bit better in terms of truth-content, but I suspect that's only because the business of manufacturing news-as-entertainment hadn't quite reached the level of grandmastery we currently observe. People are going to get their news and entertainment from whatever the easiest, most readily available source happens to be. I'd like it if there were some magical solution to get TV news to only broadcast the truth and to focus on the stories that actually matter, but failing that I am enthusiastically against anything which actively makes it more difficult for the average person to have access to current events. And as much as I hate 99% of what is on television, what business is it of mine - or anyone's - to say that American Idol and Jersey Shore shouldn't exist? It's a pretty short step from there to saying that pulp and trashy novels shouldn't exist, or that pop music shouldn't exist.
Also: Seriously, a TV show about how bad TV is? Isn't that like reading about how accurate wikipedia is on the wikipedia page for wikipedia?
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JuliusCaptain of Serenityon my shipRegistered Userregular
I would say that it isn't television per se, but rather that we have taken the luxury of bourgeois life -- free time -- and turned ourselves into entertainment consumers. Every medium -- music, television, the internet -- seems to exist vampirically on our desire to escape anything requiring effort on our part. When the state funds the medium, it tends not to be so bad. NPR and PBS are awesome! But when the free market caters to our whims, we seem intent on destroying ourselves.
The thing with television is that it is far more prone to lowest common denominator shit. The internet provides room for non-dumb stuff, tv doesn't.
I suppose that depends on what you mean by 'dumb',
Well what I mean is the "everyone is very pretty and having the bestests time of their live and have superawesome intense sex all the time and manage to rent huge apartments on the shittiest of pay and also if you're not like them you are failing" sentiment that almost all of television gives you.
Even shows that are really good still feature that kind of bullshit.
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TL DRNot at all confident in his reflexive opinions of thingsRegistered Userregular
Honestly I don't get the hatred for advertisements. Especially now, with how absurd they're getting, each ad is like a 30 second story that I don't have to pay attention to if I don't want to.
plus you get to think about the life of a man who gets paid in Trident gum
People who do not have your best interests at heart are spending millions of dollars to make you, either consciously or unconsciously, willing to part with your hard-earned money.
Look at the body image issues we're cultivating in our young people, look at the eating disorders and depression, and read a few Cosmos or watch some America's Next Top Model. Then tell me that you don't hate advertisements just a little.
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Muse Among MenSuburban Bunny Princess?Its time for a new shtick Registered Userregular
edited March 2011
Regardless of kind of media everyone would always be very pretty, but I can see why everything else is bad. Most of the shows I watch aren't really like that but I know many are.
I think it would sort of be a bitch to film in somewhere cramped however.
I mean, I tend to zone out during commercials. And I don't see how, by itself, watching a TV show during a broadcast is worse than watching it on DVD from Netflix. Sure, it's more convenient the other way (usually), but I don't think one rots my brain faster than the other. Indeed, most of my television is just having it run in the background while I eat, cook, read books, or....that's right...browse the internet.
Exposure to commercials would be one difference... unless you're using a DVR/On-Demand service to skip past them.
Like I said, I tend to zone out during commercials...and for that matter, actual TV programs (with few exceptions, I almost never sit down and just watch something, I'm a compulsive multitasker)...does getting up and leaving the television during commercials count for everything?
At this point, I'd be shocked if TV commercials effected me more than the commercials I watch on Hulu. Or the sheer amount of crap I contend with using the internet through Firefox.
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Casually HardcoreOnce an Asshole. Trying to be better.Registered Userregular
edited March 2011
Man, I haven't watch T.V. for so long that I was out eating wings and saw a bit of this 'Repo' show and commented how stupid daytime T.V. is. My friend reminded me that it was 7'o clock in the evening.
The only thing I really look forward to watch is Conan O'Brien's show. Everything else I watch is DVD's or stuff on the internet. Can I say that Firefox's Ad Block+ has made my life so much easier? I don't have to worry so much about spam anymore.
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It's pretty sad when garbage like Jersey Shore seeps it's way into our culture. I've lost count of how many times I've heard guys refer to certain girls as "grenades".
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I still watch movies, and TV shows on Netflix or DVD, but that means I'm not regularly exposed to TV commercials or TV news or TV talk shows or reality TV.
That shit makes you stupider. It distorts reality in such an insidious way that it's like some kind of anti-knowledge, like a prion that infiltrates your brain and distorts other knowledge to match its own grotesque shape.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Obviously, correlation does not equal causation. But either people who watch TV news see the world as more dangerous than it really is because of TV news, or they can watch TV news without gagging on the stupidity because they already see the world as more dangerous than it really is.
Also, this book is very convincing:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0688082742/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link
(Full text for free, BTW.)
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
I dunno, does it? You have more experience than I do with that.
Honestly when I've been in households with DVRs or on-demand cable, I still notice that people sit down to watch TV without having a particular TV show in mind and end up watching some stupid show where they're kicking bachelors off an island because they can't sing or some bullshit like that.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Oh. Yeah, I don't do that. I watch what I sat down to watch, then either switch the TV to Netflix, or turn it off.
though nowadays the only time i watch live tv is to watch sports, otherwise i watch shows online
I remember Mildred in Fahrenheit 451 frequently participated in a kind of telecommunication play, an activity which Bradbury painted in a negative light. Is the problem that, when presented with the ability to view or engage in fictional scenarios at-will, most people would rather neglect reality for fantasy?
And I'm with shaz: the internet has probably had a net zero effect on me. The internet has totally shaped who I am in a good way, but, while I don't have a tv and I read a lot of interesting and informative blogs and online sites and use the internet as a font of wisdom, I spend a significantly LARGER chunk of time reading stupid tumblr sites and posting on the forum when I don't even really want to.
Before it was really easy. Jesus was lord, the Republicans made sense, and the government was responsible for all of my problems.
I would undergo brain surgery to return to that if I could, because I was way happier.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
If my TV broke tomorrow I wouldn't really give a fuck. If my computer broke, I'd repair or get a new one immediately.
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I mean, I tend to zone out during commercials. And I don't see how, by itself, watching a TV show during a broadcast is worse than watching it on DVD from Netflix. Sure, it's more convenient the other way (usually), but I don't think one rots my brain faster than the other. Indeed, most of my television is just having it run in the background while I eat, cook, read books, or....that's right...browse the internet.
On the other hand, I make the conscious choice to browse forums, read things, etc. When you lie awake at night thinking about the Treaty of Riga article on Wikipedia, you've got a problem.
Egregiously.
Nancy Grace Effect.
Bradbury is a luddite thats why
Exposure to commercials would be one difference... unless you're using a DVR/On-Demand service to skip past them.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3HBnailmZ0&feature=related
Also depressing: most of the clips of this show on youtube are from the love episode.
Where do you get the full text for free? Says $12 for me.
Dammit, I guess I was wrong.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
but they're listening to every word I say
That's because putnam's conclusions don't necessarily seem all that neat and tidy anymore in light of emerging social media.
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
plus you get to think about the life of a man who gets paid in Trident gum
Yes. It's kinda the point. At it's heart, this is a comedy show by Charlie Brooker in the same vein as his Screenwipe stuff.
The thing with television is that it is far more prone to lowest common denominator shit. The internet provides room for non-dumb stuff, tv doesn't.
I think I watch more television online really. I scout out reviews or message boards to get an idea of what I would like and being that most of the shows I do watch are worth discussion in some capacity, end up chatting about it afterward. Are most people like this, or would that only be the case within specific age groups?
I used to watch a lot of television when I was little though. Mixed bag I would say.
I suppose that depends on what you mean by 'dumb', but there are plenty of things on television that are relatively smart. Either because they're well-written and -produced entertainment or because they're genuinely educational to some degree or another. Sometimes even both of those things simultaneously. There's a lot of dreck on television, certainly, but I would wager any number of American Dollars you'd care to front that there is vastly more on the internet. The difference is that television is (mostly*) locked into a fixed schedule of shows with fixed periods of inescapable* advertising and organized according to a difficult-to-navigate system that is only occasionally and loosely grouped by any meaningful association between offerings. The internet, on the other hand, has search engines to take you to exactly what you want the very moment that you want it. If you don't want to watch an hour's worth of videos of kids who can't really sing/dance/act/play-the-lute on youtube then you are more than free to instantly transport yourself to the online version of Physics Review Letters B or whatever.
*This is less true nowadays. With the advent of non-pay-per-view on-demand services, DVR, and listing searches TV is getting closer to being able to give you whatever slice of the ten thousand shows that come on at some point during the week on some channel whenever you want it.
Television isn't any worse than anything else, in and of itself. It's full of shit, but everything is full of shit. You can find the gold in there if you go digging. The problem with television is that it's always there and it's only a button away. You turn that thing on and there's something there to - nominally - entertain you. You don't have to do shit. You don't even have to think about what kind of entertainment you might want; just turn it on and shit's going to stream out at you until you stumble away from it. There is no other form of entertainment which is so easily accessed and requires so little effort on the part of the consumer. And because it is zero-effort entertainment, people love the fuck out of it. It's not good, most of the time. It's usually barely even entertaining. But it's there and you don't have to do anything or make any decisions to make it happen. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, and I don't think it's anyone's right to police humanity to make sure that they are only entertaining themselves with sufficiently erudite subject matter.
The problem is that people don't give a fuck, by and large. If you took away Fox News do you suppose that the masses who believe every word out of the anchors' mouths would suddenly up and start watching Al Jazeera and reading a sampling of news feeds from variously-aligned sources? Fuck no. They'd read their local paper and believe whatever the radio news man and the pastor on Sunday said, because that's what people did before Fox News. Those were, maybe, a little bit better in terms of truth-content, but I suspect that's only because the business of manufacturing news-as-entertainment hadn't quite reached the level of grandmastery we currently observe. People are going to get their news and entertainment from whatever the easiest, most readily available source happens to be. I'd like it if there were some magical solution to get TV news to only broadcast the truth and to focus on the stories that actually matter, but failing that I am enthusiastically against anything which actively makes it more difficult for the average person to have access to current events. And as much as I hate 99% of what is on television, what business is it of mine - or anyone's - to say that American Idol and Jersey Shore shouldn't exist? It's a pretty short step from there to saying that pulp and trashy novels shouldn't exist, or that pop music shouldn't exist.
Also: Seriously, a TV show about how bad TV is? Isn't that like reading about how accurate wikipedia is on the wikipedia page for wikipedia?
Well what I mean is the "everyone is very pretty and having the bestests time of their live and have superawesome intense sex all the time and manage to rent huge apartments on the shittiest of pay and also if you're not like them you are failing" sentiment that almost all of television gives you.
Even shows that are really good still feature that kind of bullshit.
People who do not have your best interests at heart are spending millions of dollars to make you, either consciously or unconsciously, willing to part with your hard-earned money.
Look at the body image issues we're cultivating in our young people, look at the eating disorders and depression, and read a few Cosmos or watch some America's Next Top Model. Then tell me that you don't hate advertisements just a little.
I think it would sort of be a bitch to film in somewhere cramped however.
Like I said, I tend to zone out during commercials...and for that matter, actual TV programs (with few exceptions, I almost never sit down and just watch something, I'm a compulsive multitasker)...does getting up and leaving the television during commercials count for everything?
At this point, I'd be shocked if TV commercials effected me more than the commercials I watch on Hulu. Or the sheer amount of crap I contend with using the internet through Firefox.
Damn...T.V. degraded big time over the years.
Never watched House, and that comes on before some of my classes, so I try and catch that during lunch.
I guess the thread title doesn't give you an idea it's a Charlie Brooker title if you're unfamiliar.
Hearing that shit actually makes me kind of sad.