I was at the grocery store the other day. Standing in line to check out (I refuse to use the self-check-out, but that's a rant for another day) I was greeted- as every customer in every check-out lane was greeted- with images of Jay Leno delivering the previous night's monologue, interspersed with commercials for products I've already had the option of purchasing (I'm in the bloody store, aren't I?) and even recipes, so that I know what to do with the products I've chosen.
At the bank I am once again in line, and once again there is a wall of televisions. CNN and Fox News speak and scroll and ALERT! By time I deposit my meager weekend earnings I am at least partially briefed on fluctuations in the Asian stock market, fluctuations in North Atlantic currents (our globe is apparently getting warm), and fluctuations in starlets' skirts. The starlets seem ahead of the game on the warming crisis, though, so I think we can call that a wash.
In the restaurant where I work there are eleven televisions throughout the building- all of them constantly on mute, providing that comforting, ever-present glow. People will bundle their families into the car, come out to a restaurant with other people, and request that the silent television's channel be changed because Survivor is on.
Even at school not an entryway or hallway or communal gathering area of that institution of higher learning goes unadorned with flat-paneled screens. There is, in fact, an over-sized (42"?) television placed on one wall of a long hallway from the entrance- where there's already a TV. This hallway TV, however, is positioned in such a way that it cannot be comfortably viewed in such a small space; it's just too big. Even if it could be comfortably viewed, it's in the middle of the [expletive deleted] hallway! Certainly not the best place for people to stop and watch bit of TV! I can only conclude that the television was placed there "just because." It's not meant to be watched, but we've gone nearly forty feet without a television, so let's just throw one up in the middle of the hallway.
Why do we need all of these TV's? I'm not on a crusade and I'm not pushing for people to start talking to each other when they're in line on some principle of human connectivity. Generally I don't want to talk to people, either, but I don't need a screen to distract me from it. At home I avoid TV with a few exceptions. If someone told me I wasn't allowed to watch TV ever again I'm pretty sure I'd make it. Imagine...
Let's imagine that for a moment: you're not allowed to watch so much as a second of television. Where could you go? Forget everything listed above: major grocery stores, most restaurants/bars, banks, school. And what would your house look like? How in blazes would you know how to arrange the furniture???
As I said, I'm not really on a crusade, just a rant. It's something I've noticed and I wonder, "Why?" We don't need TV's everywhere, so we've probably chosen to put them everywhere. Why did we choose this? Is it the same as popping in my iPod headphones out in public every once in a while?
4 comments:
Your post prompts so many random thoughts that I am going to post as a list, because I am lazy (et alia, I know):
1) I like the new look of the site.
2) I look forward to your rant on self-check out lanes at the store, because I despise them as well.
3) The mass rush to get bigger and more TVs is about status in comparisons to others, yes? Is it a product of our innate need to one-up others in one way or another?
4) Are those who are allowed to watch as much TV as they want when they are young more susceptible to the addition later on? Or are those who are deprived of it when younger fascinated by it even more when they have the freedom to chose?
5) In the end, our habits must be everything, right? We are what we do most often. Didn't someone like Aristotle say that once? Err, that may answer question number 4.
The conspiracy theorist portion of my brain has always thought of the television as "their" way of continually distracting the public from the truth...which is of course out there, albeit rather undefinable and fuzzy, sort of like the actual knowledge of who "they" are.
The increase in television watching is directly tied to what I see as our decrease in thought. We are a culture with an inability to sit in silence and think. We need the constant noise, the bite sized ideas and opinions that come from someone else, and the escape from our daily lives. All of these are detrimental to independent thought.
But while I can rant and rave about the many negative consequences of a mass public who watches hours upon days of television instead of thinking, reading, and doing, I have to admit that I love that damn tv. It is an admitted distraction for me, especially since I insist upon watching mainly fiction, leaving the news for those who enjoy being sad.
I know I could go without television for a time; I have done so in the past. Days filled not with watching but with reading (which, while I find reading to be inherently "better", is arguably no different from tv).
Paul- I think there's something to the status symbol thing. With cheaper, bigger, shinier TV's suddenly everyone can have something sleek and glow-y.
As for the quote, there's one from Heralitus that says, "A man's character is his fate." Not quite the same thing, but it's what came to mind.
Trisha- TV is definitely a means of control, even if it's not headed by a man in a black hat twirling his mustache. Probably it's a way that we control ourselves. I've often thought that there is less of a possibility of a revolution in a country where everyone has a TV.
Well, I worked at the college even before it had TV!! lol
The first campus TV came about right after Sept. 11, 2001. Of course, we were forced to stay at work that day even though everyone wanted simply to go home, to go find their families. Those were the days when faculty were all required to be there 30 hours, so we were all stuck there and expected to teach and at the advice of the history professor at the time expected to go on normally...lol. Basically, to make a long story short, we were stuck on campus with no access to information.
Anyway, my theory is that TVs everywhere is a result of Homeland Security (and eventually they will serve double duty as surveillance devices).
And, um, I am a self-checker. There is never a line there. I despise waiting in check-out lines! There is always a hangup somewhere...
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