TV -- The Opium of The Human Mind

Recently one of my readers, o, who has a blog listed on my favourite peoples list, made an interesting comment in one of my post (mysticism and the art of science) about people being glued to their TVs for nearly 8 hours(!) in his neighbourhood. According to a study in o's country (U.S.), in 2001 the number of minutes per week that parents spent having a "meaningful conversation" with their children was 3.5 mins, whereas the number of minutes per week that the average child spent in front of the Magic Box was 1,680 mins!! That's 28hours! That's a day and 4 hours every week!!!! The Magic Box no longer serves as a means of communication, it has become a "nanny", a friend, and a teacher (perhaps even a soulmate?) for many kids today.

My boss, A-san, a working mother of a three-year old girl, proudly says that "Disney" is raising her child!!! However, in saying that my boss is paid enough to send her 3 year-old to a "special" pre-school with -- get this -- a curriculum that includes: foreign languages (English and Mandarin), "music appreciation" (basically where they have students from the Tokyo College of Music perform concertos to please these brats), martial arts (?), ballet, and pottery. After school, when she is not watching the Little Mermaid, she has swimming classes! (I wonder when this girl eats, sleeps, goes to the bathroom...) Oh, and the pre-school field trips? These kids go to "fun" places like Hawaii!!

It's OK for little girls like her, for at the tender age of 3 she is already on the golden escalator directly to an Ivy League college abroad, and a cushy life/career after that (mais sans l'amour de maman et de papa). But what about the rest of the kids who don't receive a 5 star, private education? What about the kids who have both parents that work long hours to pay the rent, put food on the table, buy Nike shoes, and the latest Powerpuff Girls lunch box?

Oh. Well. You see they get "Mary Poppins" to watch over the kids playing "Finding Nemo", or play with their "Toy Story II" upstairs in their bedroom.

With the advent of satellite and cable TV the number of channels available to us has increased dramatically (hell! I remember, in 1984, when there were only 3 channels when we lived in Germany!!!), and guess what? The quality is inversely proportional to the number of channels available. That means the more channels, the more crap they project out of the Magic Box.

Today Murdock and his broadband of merry men inundate our homes with cheap, mass produced visual opiates that are soooooo potent -- more potent than heroin -- that most people are so junked up that they can barely move one finger (actually, it's usually the thumb) to scan from infomercial, to propaganda, to televangelists, to "this-is-a-portrayal-of-real-life" dramas...

(Yeah, but DWR, what about the internet? Isn't that full of more junk than the Magic Box? I mean, that's the ultimate information overload, don't you think?)

No. There is a distinct difference between TV as a medium for transmitting information and our good ol' cyberspace. The words that separate the Magic Box and the WWW are:

Censored by others vs. Censored ourselves

(restriction) vs. (freedom of choice)

You see, dear readers, the stuff aired on television these days are like the spam and all the annoying popups that you are really not interested in. You only need to try and see one of those "adult content" sites for a free preview, and they are all over the place! Everywhere! Anything from On-line Casinos, to Weight-Loss Programs, to even Penis Extension Ads!!! (For Fuck's Sake! I am a woman! And no, I don't have penis envy!!!!) You must all have experienced these annoying pop-ups; you close one and another five suddenly manifest out of thin air trying to tell you about the California Psychics, and you *still* can't get to your adult content site. You see, in the end, just like with the redundant programs on TV, you just give up and either set up a spy-bot software (get a protection program for your cable box), or you just wade thru the pop ups (channel hop), just in case you may *need* to buy some herbal viagra.

Ok, must admit that there ARE good things on TV that are really informative and are a good source of knowledge, but compared to what is out there in your full cable subscription, what percentage do you deem worthy to give up precious time with your children so they can get ahead in life, and become a good person? Would you trust your children with 1680mins of spam a week?

I don't think so either.

My final take on the matter -- just like with drugs and alcohol: all in moderation. All in moderation...

And for all of you parents who have read this post -- please spend some time with your children. Preferably *not* in front of the TV.

(Post Script: I apologise to any TV sets that were offended by my derogatory use of the term "Magic Box" to describe you. TV sets these days are environmentally friendly, they promote sustainable development in middle and lower income nations that provide us with an abundance of cheap labour, and they are not boxy -- they are flat. Modern TVs have LCD screens, have digital quality images, they no longer pollute our oceans, destroy our rain forests, nor do they promote poaching of African Elephants for their precious ivory, which sometimes mysteriously appear in "oriental" markets, in places like Yokohama's China Town, sold as herbal viagra...

I also apologise to "Magic" Johnson for using his name next to the word "Box", when clearly he is an ex-NBA player...

And finally I apologise to all the transvestites in the world. My post today is about TeleVision being the opium of the human mind, not trannies. You are all beautiful, and I wish that the women of America (and all other women) watched more of you -- we need all your beauty tips!!)

Detoxing Wench