Kill your television?

[eversio11]

http://maddox.xmission.com

(in relation to the Chappelle thing)

[KatWoman]

Originally Posted by lazysmurff

i
my question to the forum is this: is this harmless fun and im a cynical bastard, or does it point to a larger underlying problem? such as our society turning to T.V., a mindless uninvolving form of entertainment that requires no thought process to enjoy, which led to T.V. dinners which require no thought process to buy and make, and feeds us already interpreted information which requires no thought process to determine what going on for ourselves...and as such, instead of creative originallity, we turn to a blind mimicry of tv personalities for joy in our daily lives and it becomes more entertaining to hear "im rick james, bitch" than it is to read a good satire.

I think it is up to each individual adult how he/she handles and reacts to things seen on TV. Using a catch phrase from a show once or twice in an appropriate situation can be funbny, but when this lingo starts becoming an everyday part of your vocbulary then your're showing the world you might not be that intelligent. FOr me personally, TV is good for catching up on some news, or for that occasional day home alone and I have nothing else better to do. We have full cable, but hardly use it, but it is nice to have it when an occasion to watch TV comes up. Other than that my TV is on only for video games or movies....and even then that's once or twice a month.

But I think the REAL problem for TV is when it comes down to kids. Today the TV is probably the most widely used babysitter. Parents plop their kids in front of a TV to keep them entertained while they go do their own thing, rather than spend some quality family time together. They don't think anything is wrong with that, but then they get shocked and upset when their kids start demonstrating innappropriate behavior....which they more than likely picked up from a TV show.

So now you have a society full of children talking catchphrases, lifting up their shirts/dropping their drawers, and acting like Cartman on South Park.

Kill your TV? Not necessarily but perhaps not spend as much time with it. Take a walk with your family in the evening, read or do crafts with the kids, maybe go on a picnic on Saturday's.....then maybe designate an hour or 2 here n there to watch some tv together. But for the love of Moses, keep an eye on what your kids are watching.

[MagicRat]

Originally Posted by KatWoman

I think it is up to each individual adult how he/she handles and reacts to things seen on TV. Using a catch phrase from a show once or twice in an appropriate situation can be funbny, but when this lingo starts becoming an everyday part of your vocbulary then your're showing the world you might not be that intelligent. FOr me personally, TV is good for catching up on some news, or for that occasional day home alone and I have nothing else better to do. We have full cable, but hardly use it, but it is nice to have it when an occasion to watch TV comes up. Other than that my TV is on only for video games or movies....and even then that's once or twice a month.

But I think the REAL problem for TV is when it comes down to kids. Today the TV is probably the most widely used babysitter. Parents plop their kids in front of a TV to keep them entertained while they go do their own thing, rather than spend some quality family time together. They don't think anything is wrong with that, but then they get shocked and upset when their kids start demonstrating innappropriate behavior....which they more than likely picked up from a TV show.

So now you have a society full of children talking catchphrases, lifting up their shirts/dropping their drawers, and acting like Cartman on South Park.

Kill your TV? Not necessarily but perhaps not spend as much time with it. Take a walk with your family in the evening, read or do crafts with the kids, maybe go on a picnic on Saturday's.....then maybe designate an hour or 2 here n there to watch some tv together. But for the love of Moses, keep an eye on what your kids are watching.

Kat is absolutely right.
One of my sisters used the TV as a electronic babysitter all the time, and all 3 of her kids are socially poorly adjusted, rude, poorly behaved little monsters.
My other sister has never had a TV in her house. Her 2 kids received the loving supportive attention of the family all the time. They are terrific, intellegent inquisitive and well behaved kids.

TV watching for kids goes hand in hand with parental neglect.
Personally I find the TV boring and I would much rather spend time in outdoor activities and with family and friends.
Also, the Internet is far more interesting than TV could ever be.

[Prelewd]

I think, like anything in life, that there should be a balance.

Sometimes, while bored, i go participate in some mindless self indulgence, watching tv and eating cereal. It's one of my favorite pastimes. I watch channels like the discovery channel, the history channel, the game show network, and most importantly, speedvision (except when they have countless postrace nascar shows on, which is all the damn time). I learn things from these channels.

Just to play devil's advocate, I could also see how some trendy shows are entertaining and promote social activity the next day at school. "Did you see what happened on chapelle show last night?", "yea that was funny as hell." and on and on.

I don't really know where i'm going with this, but as a boy, I had 13 channels and most of the time they were pretty lame, so I was outside riding bikes or skateboarding. Now I am on the net everytime I'm not doing something else. I'm sure I could be out drinking or smoking weed, or something else that bored people do, but I'd rather be learning.

I think it's both good and bad.

[r8erz4life]

i say... you only live once... have fun watching what ever you want

[spooleffect]

TV does have a ton of crap on it but thats all everyone focuses on. I love watching interesting programs that I learn from. PBS(NOVA mainly), The History Channel, National Geographic Channel, and Discovery Channel are my favorite channels because I can learn from a lot of the programming on these channels. However, like TLC the Discovery Channel is putting more and more useless un-informative shows on.

TV isnt all bad but it will be nothing but 5000 channels of mind degrading crap sooner or later.