"The average child in the United States watches four hours of television every day. These kids are exposed to 20,000 commercials annually. They see 8,000 on screen murders by the time they finish grade school. Is this a good thing?"--- from Ambient Findability by Peter Morville
Sometimes I read things and then I have to reread. Could that really be? First, I am not against TV. We have two fat panel models (we still have the beefier non-flat models that take up a corner and require a TV stand...I know...we are so 90's) in our house and many satellite signals arrive that are wonderfully converted into a multitude of channels which are regularly surfed from the relative comfort of a sofa...with a couple of dogs sleeping at my feet.
I still go to the gym, run, bike, and get outside relatively often...but there is something comforting and relaxing about the old tube. Still when the numbers are presented in a summary format, as in the excerpt above, it is a bit frightening.
I watched some reasonably violent TV as kid...but Bo and Luke never really hurt anyone and I can't remember anyone dying after the explosions on the A-Team. Crockett and Tubbs killed a few guys but they were wearing really awful pastel clothing from the 80's...and it was the height of the war on drugs...it didn't seem real. Mork rarely did more than trip on the stairs in Mindy's Boulder apartment and only jokes occasionally died on Seinfeld. I just hope kids don't grow up to be desensitized about what we now see on CNN everyday 24-hours a day. I am optimistic that most will be able to differentiate between Baghdad violence and what they see on CSI, the Sopranos, and whatever new shows are produced.
I still go to the gym, run, bike, and get outside relatively often...but there is something comforting and relaxing about the old tube. Still when the numbers are presented in a summary format, as in the excerpt above, it is a bit frightening.
I watched some reasonably violent TV as kid...but Bo and Luke never really hurt anyone and I can't remember anyone dying after the explosions on the A-Team. Crockett and Tubbs killed a few guys but they were wearing really awful pastel clothing from the 80's...and it was the height of the war on drugs...it didn't seem real. Mork rarely did more than trip on the stairs in Mindy's Boulder apartment and only jokes occasionally died on Seinfeld. I just hope kids don't grow up to be desensitized about what we now see on CNN everyday 24-hours a day. I am optimistic that most will be able to differentiate between Baghdad violence and what they see on CSI, the Sopranos, and whatever new shows are produced.
2 comments:
This should also get you thinking about what limits you're going to set on your own newborn.
In addition to the stuff you mention, I remember a fair number of people dying by the hands of Stringfellow Hawk as he blew them out of the sky.
But I tend to agree, the majority of people are able to differentiate between television and reality. This reminds me of how all the kids that played Dungeons & Dragons were going become satanists or something because some people never understood the fact that people (kids included) can differentiate between reality and fantasy. The reality is that it's only about half of the kids that played D&D become cultists. :-)
As for the numbers, I have to wonder if they're counting multiple cartoon deaths in their totals. How many times has Wile E. Coyote fallen, hit the ground and you see an angel version rise up (this is even more true for the original Tom & Jerry shows, of which they have to be one of the most violent cartoons I can recall).
Having said all that, I do feel that the increased level of violence in entertainment shows has desensitized people about this type of stuff in general.
Yes, this having a kid thing makes me think a lot more about everything...probably to the point of ridiculousness :-)
jamesF: You are truly the TV guru... The Stringfellow Hawk thing sounded familiar...but I couldn't place it for the life of me, so I had to look.
Airwolf!, you are the man and so was Ernest Borgnine
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