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Feb. 16th, 2004 11:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rain_gryphonSome asshole went and put a television in the break room at work, so now it's impossible to enjoy a few minutes of quiet time. Either through cheapness or cruelty, or perhaps some unhappy confluence of the two, it's tuned to a broadcast (i.e., 'Big Four') network. It amazes me that people will actually sit through network primetime programming, yet there's a little group out there staring at the tube. The program's supposed to be funny (there's laughter dubbed in every 20 seconds or so) yet the watchers are sitting with this inscrutable, intent expression. Not a one of them seems to be amused by the jokes, or if they are, it's not an amusement that can be seen. Their faces reflect the earnestness of two year olds. Their bodies are there, but inside they've gone to this place that doesn't seem to be open to me.
There's something in network television that never really connected with me on an emotional level, and if that doesn't happen for you, you can't participate fully in middle American social life. That's probably a good thing, I suppose. If the lives being depicted on TV shows somehow represent dream lives for the viewers, that's a dream that I couldn't live in. It's bad enough to be stuck bodily here, without having it infect my soul as well.
To a certain extent, I think TV watching serves as a sort of surrogate life for some. Many years back, I worked in a factory, and there was a group of people who invariably spent the day talking about what they'd seen on television the previous night. They seemed not really so much to be friends with one another, as to be people who considered the television characters as their friends. They'd not only discuss the behaviour of the characters, but they'd also repeat favourite jokes, re-enacting the show to a certain extent. It seemed unwholesome, in some hard to define way. Monty Python fans do the exact same thing, but with them, it seems exuberantly silly. They're alive while they're doing that. With the factory women, it had this weird edge of desperation - they seemed almost compelled to do it.
There's something in network television that never really connected with me on an emotional level, and if that doesn't happen for you, you can't participate fully in middle American social life. That's probably a good thing, I suppose. If the lives being depicted on TV shows somehow represent dream lives for the viewers, that's a dream that I couldn't live in. It's bad enough to be stuck bodily here, without having it infect my soul as well.
To a certain extent, I think TV watching serves as a sort of surrogate life for some. Many years back, I worked in a factory, and there was a group of people who invariably spent the day talking about what they'd seen on television the previous night. They seemed not really so much to be friends with one another, as to be people who considered the television characters as their friends. They'd not only discuss the behaviour of the characters, but they'd also repeat favourite jokes, re-enacting the show to a certain extent. It seemed unwholesome, in some hard to define way. Monty Python fans do the exact same thing, but with them, it seems exuberantly silly. They're alive while they're doing that. With the factory women, it had this weird edge of desperation - they seemed almost compelled to do it.
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Date: 2004-02-16 08:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-02-17 09:03 am (UTC)The mobs of Rome would discuss the latest gladiator fights or chariot races the same way, even if most of them hadn't seen the actual event.
You can't get your entertainment by hanging out in the town square any more.
And Walter Cronkeit noted that he couldn't cover "small" news stories any more, because when he came to town, his presence was more news than the event he was there to see.
Television...
no subject
Date: 2004-02-18 09:51 am (UTC)Anyhow, T.V. at home is not only a surrogate for real relationships but it is also a power issue for people to play mind games with.....it sucks. I don't hate T.V. I just hate how it seems to take over the need to work out any kind of problems or disagreements. The only thing my family can do together anymore is watch T.V. together.....somehow the rapid stimulation takes away the need to start an arguement.
What I like least about television is that I may be on the brink of comming up with a really nice solution to some kind of problem whether it is for school and for hobbies or even relationships.....someone turns the T.V. on and everything I came up with is immediately disapated......The worst is when the T.V. finally goes off and I am in the family room sitting in the easy chair trying to get my thoughts back and my dad come up to me and forces the remote into my hands.....kind of like saying...."life sucks, just drown your sorrows in Television like the rest of us.
Jumpyfox