On occasion I do rant about the negative aspects of the industry I have been periodically working in over the past 35 years or so. Oftentimes I am not proud of the industry or even my rantings about it, but I try to do my best with it. And yes I feel like taking it to task once again, because there is so much fodder there.
When FCC Chairman Newton Minow called TV ‘a vast wasteland’ in a famous speech more than 50 years ago, he probably had no idea how much of a fortune teller he would be. And of course he had been talking about his own present time.
Even earlier than that (and for many years later) Marshall McLuhan, the technology prophet and media critic, continually lambasted where the electronic age was taking us all. But in a way all the different avenues that media and content enters our life has always been an easy target. For with it always comes all the advertising and marketing tools to fuel our insatiable consumer desires. That marketing we all complain about, but get sold by.
I know, we’ve all heard this before, but I am now of the opinion that the invention of the television set may be one of the worst inventions in the history of humankind. It began this whole hypnotic march towards unbridled voyeurism, insidious sedentary-ism, and cloistered group think masquerading as multiple choice, expressive individualism. I think we have so insidiously been gradually brainwashed that it is almost beyond our perceptive and critical thinking abilities to realize we have arrived as mental minions of instant gratification content. It does not serve us. We serve it. It is our master. We are its slaves. Long live the media gods!
It seems in my humble opinion that these countless modern media distractions now take so much away from our rich inner lives that we are only left drained and longing for more and more media to fill the sagging emptiness, day in and day out. We have been duped over and over again, fair people. And the enemy is right here nearby … ourselves.
Yes, it all started out so innocently. Those 50′s TV sets were such fun new novelties where our families could sit around and watch their favorite shows together. And yes, actually it was a logical outgrowth of radio’s popularity. I know I certainly had fun growing up in the fifties and sixties watching my favorite shows, or whatever I was allowed to watch. Because back then we were limited how much we could watch, because it always seemed we had so many other things to do. Ha, like playing outside, remember?
Next thing that came were color TV’s, and bigger TV’s, and then cable, because early on we only had the three main networks, and eventually PBS. So as time marched on, more and more stations, and more shows, and longer hours. And VCR’s came along and we could record shows and buy videos of moves to watch on TV. More and more distractions. And guess what else? Drama. More and more drama in our life. If dealing with our own daily dramas wasn’t enough, now we got inundated with all these other dramas to keep us enthralled. But what else? Colored, distracted and tensed out, we demanded more. For why pay attention to our boring little lives when we could tune into something much more intriguing, and falsely satisfying? Why eat real, nutritious fruit with a blemish on it when we can have perfect-looking plastic fruit we can watch but don’t really have to eat? So safe and distant, but so alluring and demanding.
Wow, and then came the Internet, HD, and online gaming, and whole lots more eye candy to stuff our faces with. Such insatiable content appetites we grew. How do we have time to do anything else? And why would we want to do anything else? Oh, but then laptops, cell phones, notebooks, tablets, pads, and on and on, just kept coming. And now, I can do so much, all at the same time! Look at me and see all this time I’m saving. I can watch a movie on my big screen HDTV, while tuning into the news on my laptop, sharing pictures with friends on my tablet, updating my status on Facebook, Tweeting, uploading a video to YouTube, and texting my traveling wife on my cell (hopefully she’s not driving). All in a room by myself, with no real contact with anyone at all. A virtual life in a half-real world. Wow, we have arrived! Haven’t we? Or have we?
On top of all that most of us are fatter now. I know obese is that polite, politically correct term, but … We go outside less, we exercise less, we eat more, we sit more, and we devour content and drama like never before. And it all started more than 50 years ago with that innocent little black and white TV set, with the three stations and the midnight sign-off of the star spangled banner playing under flying jets. But at least we always knew that when that test pattern screeched on, it was finally time to turn the set off.
So now I’m wondering, do we have an off switch to turn all this content off? Or has this slope just gotten too slippery? And is it too late stop the slide? Will we continue to be spectators to life rather that participants? And how long can life go on without us? … Hello, anyone still alive out there? …
JAD
Author: Jerry Alden Deal
Writer – Director – Producer of Way To Go Media, LLC.
Over the past thirty years Jerry has been hired numerous times to develop and write screenplays for other production companies. During that same period several of his spec scripts were also optioned. ‘Dreams Awake’ was Jerry’s feature directorial debut. He has several other projects in various stages of development. One of which, the feature documentary ‘The Inner Sonic Key’ is currently in post-production.