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Technology isn't inherently good or evil; it's what we do with it that counts.
Many forms of technology have made our lives easier.
It's so easy these days to communicate with friends or family, either through e-mail, cell phone or Facebook.
The Internet in general is probably the most powerful tool ever created. Access to information is instantaneous. And of course, television is an easy way to keep us entertained.
However, many of these technological tools are actively used to oppress people. It isolates citizens and dumbs them down in several ways.
First, television - the great evil of our times - is probably the worst thing that could have happened to humanity. According to Nielsen Media Research, the average American home now has more television sets than people living in it, and the average American watches 4 hours and 35 minutes of television each day. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, "American children and adolescents spend 22 to 28 hours per week viewing television, more than any other activity except sleeping. By the age of 70 they will have spent 7 to 10 years of their lives watching TV."
Obviously, some of the most basic things lost due to television are time and creativity. In that four to five hours of watching television, someone could have done any number of tasks - read a book, cleaned the house, did some homework, etc.
However, the most sinister aspect of all this is that this is exactly the purpose of television. It is supposed to keep you entertained and isolated from everyone else.
It always amazes me that a room full of people can sit in a room for hours without saying a word to one another, all because they are watching TV. So, not only are people literally isolated because they choose to stay home and watch TV, they are isolated even among people who occupy the same space. This is nothing more than the zombiefication of America.
This is exactly what those of the ruling classes want. A population that is isolated from one another - physically and emotionally - cannot hope to challenge the status quo. When people care too much about nonsense that isn't real, the population becomes distracted, giving political leaders and others a free pass to do whatever they want.
This is not new to history. Go watch the movie "Gladiator" (I know, ironic in a column that's saying television is a bad thing - but film has a way of conveying themes and ideas that can actually be meaningful) and it explores how the Roman Emperor Commodus reopens the entertaining gladiatorial games so he can distract the masses from his inept leadership.
Of course, the stuff that you are really supposed to watch on television isn't the programs; it is the ads. The stuff that you watch TV for - all the programs and the entertainment - are just filler for all the commercials.
The entertaining parts are meant to keep you in your seat long enough for you to watch commercial after commercial, in the hopes that you will buy some sort of product.
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Brett, your article is very well written and makes strong points for all of us to use our time and creativity much more wisely.
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The thing about TV is that you can OPT to watch or not watch. I enjoy watching Law and Order because it raises some pertinent intellectual questions. I enjoy watching the History channel because it offers interesting information. I mean, not all television shows rot the brain - in many ways, shows that are adaptations of books can be beneficial to creativity by virtue of the diversity of interpretation which can and generally is presented. Bottom line - you aren't chained to the set by anything other than your own desire to be there. Television isn't 'evil,' nor are people who don't feel like being creative.
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The author said what you said, that you aren't chained there, but you choose to be. Even movie star Charleton Heston says the internet is only for lonely people. Wake up everyone, the reptilian shape-shifters did invent the TV and Internet (yes yes, Al Gore is one of them). My major complaint is that you state at the begining, with no support as if tautological, that technology is neutral. This is the most absurd aspect of conventional wisdom. Ted Kaczynski was right.
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Lol, tv oppressing me. I watched some tv yesterday and omfg I still had time to see my girlfriend, spend time with my dog and work on my music production - all after working 8 hours at my job. There are these two things called time management and self discipline people should try out sometime.
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Your thesis has merit. Unfortunately, you support it with bogus trash. None of your studies are documented beyond simply "a study" or "studies," and history from Hollywood? Commodus did NOT reinstitute the games, he participated in them... a lot. Not entirely effective, that. And a free market argument? Come on. Economists admit fully that a "true free market" is a myth because homo economicus doesn't exist. Do you think markets were freer before television? That perhaps things were made colorful or advertisements in papers made ornate to, oh, I don't know, perhaps try to irrationally convince consumers to buy products? Something of a laugh. I very much doubt this is a conspiracy. It's probably more likely an emergent pattern of a capitalistic society; how things are organized, it's simply very probable it will happen. A clarion call does need to be sounded, just not this way and not supported so speciously. "My major complaint is that you state at the begining, with no support as if tautological, that technology is neutral." Thank you for using the Internet. Please submit your computer, eyeglasses, any results of surgical procedure, house, and any other forms of instrumentality short of your bare hands so you may live in nontechnological goodness. You are not permitted to own nor manufacture clothing, simple weapons, or shelter, for these are all technological implements. You are not permitted to own nor manufacture devices of any sort, including simple machines, nor release energy through artificial means such as fire for any purpose. I give you about a month before you starve, assuming you don't dehydrate first.
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