Le 'jamming' du culture
You would be surprised in this day and age if you heard of someone who doesn't watch T.V. or doesn't own one. And there are people who say they don't watch T.V. yet in reality they do. In fact, I used to be one of these people, but when I was a kid growing up, my mom only allowed PBS to be watched, and wouldn't let my sis and I play with Barbies (her reasoning was that if we played with Barbies, we would have body issues and want to fit the "perfect blonde" stereotype that accompanied Barbie). As a result, we weren't able to have conversations with our peers about current T.V. shows, as we werent' allowed to watch them. I often felt left out of because of it. In her own way, she tried to shield us from the brainwashing ways of the media at a young age, which, I believe, is tender time when we are easily influenced. I am thankful that she did this because I was able to be more creative and imaginative as a child. In contrast, had I been openly exposed to all T.V. channels, I would have spent more time watching T.V. (luckily my mom limited T.V. watching to only an hour per day, and that was when she was being generous. In high school we were allowed to watch whatever we wanted though. Still she would say, "That show is too violent, change it" or "why don't you go do something constructive instead?" As well, she would point out media stereotypes that she found questionable or offensive. She basically made us feel guilty for even watching the tube, that eventually it lost its allure. This isn't to say she totally condoned T.V. she was just highly selective in what she watched "Garbage in, garbage out" she would say..).
It is statistically proven that in homes where there is no T.V. watching, children perform better in school and are more creative and individualistic. I wholeheartedly agree with this, with myself as testimony. However, I believe that no matter how hard one tries to prevent the media's influence on one's family or oneself, there is no escaping it. There's the saying, "you can run, but you can't hide" which perfectly illustrates this example. It is possible to limit it, but not possible to shield it entirely, unless you decide to live a hermitlike existance as a renunciant in the Himalayas.
In a different vein, the essay got me to ponder the question of whether we create what is on T.V. or does T.V. create us? Mark Dery's quote about the television particularly spoke to me:
"This techno-voodoo rite constitutes the symbolic obliteration of a one-way information pipeline that only transmits, never receives. It is an act of sympathetic magic performed in the name of all who are obliged to peer at the world through peepholes owned by multinational conglomerates for whom the profit margin is the bottom line."
I agree with what Dery says here because T.V. is only sending out a billion bits of information per second, and some of its messages are subliminal, using specific images, colors, music, etc to brainwash the viewer into wanting to get this now, buy that, go out to eat there, to be sexy, make us feel guilty for not being sexy enough, not cool enough if we don't smoke this brand, that we're not thin enough like the girl in the commercial, etc. Whether we know it or not, these messages infiltrate our subconscious mind and affect how we perceive ourselves and the world, as well as how we interact with others. So yes, T.V. is a one-way pipeline that only trasmits and never receives. It has created us, the monster it has previously envisioned, to control us and enslave us, dependent upon it.
And the sad fact is that people are making money off of our sheep-like following of the trends it sets, the products/services it promotes, the ratings from the stupid reality shows that aren't worth watching, and we could have been doing something worthwhile instead. And then it got me thinking, is reality T.V. a means of distracting us from what's really going on in the world? To keep us in the dark? To keep us dumb, ill-informed? What's the T.V. industry thinking? Why is it that the United States is the only freaking country that does not have international news coverage? I actually started learning about what's happening in places other than the U.S. when I studied abroad in France--and it wasn't just in class, it was when I simply turned on the T.V! I additionally got an enlightening different perspective on how the U.S. is perceived! No wonder Britain calls us the Ivory Tower..
It's funny how many people waste their lives in the time spent watching mindless T.V. I bet if there was a law banning T.V.'s and a recall of all existing T.V.'s, there would be a fresh crop of free-thinking individuals who wouldn't be susceptible to the whims of the media. People wouldn't fear the government so much either, because the media is a significant means of governmental control. Can you believe that there are families who eat dinner in front of the T.V.? God, I'd hate to imagine what would happen if all the T.V.'s were recalled. These families would actually have to interact with each other!
