As I have mentioned before, I do not watch television. I do not feel that I missing anything by not doing so. I was wondering today… is the decline of modern television programs a symptom of the declining intelligence of Americans, or is it part of the cause? What came first, the chicken or the egg? Or, more specifically in this case, what came first… reality TV or people dumb enough to base their schedules around when the new “Dancing with the Stars” comes on tonight?
I try to imagine a world where everyone watched the same things I used to watch growing up. I watched a few children’s shows in my youth (Power Rangers, Sailor Moon, He-Man, etc) but I got addicted to the Discovery Channel by the age of 7. I also loved to stay up late watching Nick at Nite. I watched countless episodes of I Love Lucy, Mary Tyler Moore, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and Tarzan in black and white. When I stayed over at my Grandmother’s house, which was often, we watched Gone With The Wind, North and South, and lots of other Civil War movies. She was obsessed with that time period and owned lots of movies based in the time.
I grew up on a diet of old black and white TV, Discovery Channel, and Civil War movies. I also loved reading. My older brother taught me to read when I was four years old, and I was reading adult novels by eight. I grew up to be a driven, successful man with a good idea of the way adults are supposed to behave. How much differently might I have turned out if I had grown up watching Jersey Shore, Mob Wives, Honey Boo Boo and 16 and Pregnant? Might I have thought that the behaviour betrayed in these programs is acceptable adult behaviour? Would I have dressed like a jackass and strutted around shouting “Come at me, bro!”?
Americans are growing less intelligent. Anyone who spends any time out in society is aware of this. Not only are we getting dumber, we are losing our ambition and drive. Creativity is clearly lacking as well, which is made obvious by looking at the movies coming out of Hollywood lately. How many of them are original films? How many are sequels, re-makes, or movies based on comic books? When every comic book, video game, and Nicholas Sparks novel has been turned into a movie, what will they have left? How many more groups of rednecks are left to exploit for reality shows?
New music is getting worse, as well. I have a 45 minute trip to work every day. I listen to pretty much everything, aside from rap. With 3 country stations, 1 rock station, and 2 Top 40 stations, I still hear the same 10 songs every day. I’m getting close to smashing the radio every time I hear Taylor Swift crying about another boyfriend. I may be the only guy on the planet who hasn’t banged that slut yet. And new music is mind numbingly repetitious. I’ve heard so many songs lately that seem to be 4 lines repeated for 5 minutes.
How much of a difference might it make in this country if someone pulled the plug on cable/satellite television? If parents were forced to deal with their kids instead of sitting them in front of the picture box? If children had to play outside and read books instead of watching this neuron murdering drivel?
My question remains…the chicken or the egg? Cause or effect?
On a side note, I’ve had a blast these past two weeks talking with other bloggers. My three hour drunken conversation with Bill Powell was like a Manosphere induction ceremony. There was so much I didn’t know about the history of this little group, and probably more I am yet to learn. Delicious Tacos was fun to bullshit with. Leap of a Beta is a really cool guy and we had a blast. And everyone knows Ace and I are close. Knowing there are other intelligent, like minded fellows out there gives me a little more hope for this country.
-Dr. Illusion
I think that it’s the internet killing people’s ability to think and that the symptom you’re seeing within television is the carry over. People are becoming addicted to instant gratification, fast yet shallow thoughts and decision making, and social networking. Oh, and cat photos/videos.
TV has been around forever. It didn’t change society all that much. The new way we write and process the written word has drastically altered how our brains work. And we all love it.
The vast majority of the people will always work, fuck, and unwind with some drivel for entertainment. Reality TV is bread and circus for the modern generation.
People are not getting more stupid. Every age has their great minds commenting on the decadence of their people.
Personally, I love pop music. Every Tuesday I download the new singles and spend the week rocking in my chair listening on repeat while I think. Like House with his soap operas.
My uncle is a big fan of retrotelevision, and I can attest after watching hours upon hours of it, most of it was garbage. The one big bright spot is we are seeing the genises of independent entertainment. I’ve seen a lot of talented people who have created their own mini-tv stations, webcomics, and of course, internet publishing. At some point someone is going to hit it big, and totally knock traditional entertainment media off of it’s predestal.
“…the chicken or the egg? Cause or effect?” well, in my humble opinion that’s quite a long topic to eviscerate. but, just to speculate… maybe it could be something like a good 40/50% the one-eyed-monster is a cause (in this days throw the internet in, despite all the good infos), and on the other side this cause needed as well some ripe grain to harvest, so it’s a kind of an “oblivion-union”, and we know the snakes eat their own tails: the cause feeds the effect and vice versa. so it’s just like a downward spiral who constantly feeds itself. here we got lots of pre-existing causes like education systems, mind dumbing “medications”, and whatever, name it, you got it. anyhow reality-tv, mtv and all the others who keep on doing their fantastic job in making our brains, well, the brains of who keep drugging himself with that crap, a “bubbling brainy fondue” *, well, they have their own agenda and they’re doing great! hahaha… and, guys, i don’t even live in the states and trust me, this is not a local issue, this is going all over the world, well, at least the portion that i know. i’m wondering how this gonna end, but, in the meanwhile i’ll just add some ice to my drink, and light up another cigarette… btw my vat69 is over.. °&$&£*§
* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0aBopJJuaU