Television – Brainwashed from birth

Being an average American citizen living in this modern age of electricity and a product of pop culture I feel like I am part of the herd being force fed information I don’t really care to ingest.

Ever since I was a kid I remember watching T.V., back then I could count all of the channels we got from Chicago on 2 hands.  That was pushing it really.  So, of course I watched Sesame Street, Electric Company, Mister Rogers, etc…and of course all the cartoons, Woody Woodpecker, Bugs Bunny, Popeye, and I loved them all really.  It wasn’t really an option to not watch commercials cause it was just part of the whole experience.  Let’s fast forward to today 30 years and now we have digital cable, satellite, HDTV…the options keep coming, but there is another form of media that a lot of people don’t think of as a replacement for television, that is the Internet.  There are websites out there that you can watch your favorite shows anytime you feel like it.  Some of them don’t have commercials, but most do, unfortunately.  But of course there are always the peer to peer networks out there with the torrents that you can download whole seasons of shows, all commercial free.  Our options are multiplying everyday, I almost overlooked TiVo, I haven’t used it myself, but from what I have heard you can fast forward past all those annoying advertisements.

What’s my point?  It would have to be my observation of the impact of commercialization on the world, not only the U.S..  I think the world should stop putting so much importance on trying to sell their crap and rethink the possibilities of how mass media could be a hugely positive influence on the world.  People get so caught up in nonsense like what Britney Spears is wearing or doing and at the same time there are innocent children living in poverty because their parents have made poor choices in life, or aren’t able to provide a stable home.

Maybe I am stomping my foot here and bashing the media for giving people what they want, but this is a free country and I have the right to think and say whatever I feel like, so like it or not, this is my point of view.