It was a discussion on Facebook that started with a friend complaining about the ratio of commercials to programming on TV. People came out of the woodwork to put down "idiot boxes" and decry how "TV rots your brain."
Yes, on the internet. Anyone else see a pot and a kettle? ;-)
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My response:
I'll be the contrarian here: I like TV! I like the options I get with satellite TV. And cable. Even that "free" over-the-air stuff. We make up for some of the folks here who don't have a TV - we have 3 in the house and 3 in the motorhome. Sometimes it is in the background, sometimes it is the focus. I don't feel my mind is being "rotted"... I am informed and intelligent enough to know when something is bullshit and when a view offered is slanted. I can hear and see that slanted view and still think for myself. I can turn it off when I want. There is far more mind-wasting crap on the internet, yet you don't see anyone here pooh-poohing that. Think for yourself! Don't like commercials, don't watch 'em. Don't like the program that is on? Our TVs come with this fancy device that allows me to (gasp) change the channel! At will. Really - any time I want. Pick and choose - entertainment and information. Just like out in "the real world" - some content makes me laugh, some makes me shake my head. Some makes me pause and think.
"Program your brain"?? Just watch old movies? "Haven't had one hooked up in years"?? How could you possibly know what is available if you don't have or watch? The difference here is HAVING AN OPEN MIND - I don't think less of people who don't watch TV, but I think there is a bit of "I am better than the masses because I don't watch" going on here.
Feel free to discuss... because everyone knows if you put your opinion out on the internet often enough, it will change minds. Hahahahahahahahaha!
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Do you suppose the non-TV viewers still have newspaper subscriptions? Are their minds so weak that they can't hear an opinion and not believe and agree with it? Can they not recognize slanted journalism? We have gone without TV for a month or so at a time when boat cruising - not from lack of trying, but because we couldn't get a signal. The last couple years of owning Wild Blue, we had a satellite receiver and two TVs onboard.
TV is not bad. BELIEVING everything you see on TV would be bad. Just like it would be with the internet. Or reading gossip magazines. It is up to the individual to "process the input" and determine what is useful or factual; and, what is entertainment.
And now, back to our regular programming...
;-)
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