Just look at this image…
July 20, 2012
Lily Munroe – a friend I have made through this blog (and has a like-minded blog herself: freedomfrompornculture) – found the following, A-MAZ-ING image, after reading my last post:
Question #76: Do you think this is what’s happening?
I do…
and I’m finding myself getting a little alarmed.
Deep Breath.
x
Questions for Us 
I don’t believe so. It is unfair to tar all Americans with the same brush. Sure, they are of a different mindset to us, but I”m sure there are many different perspectives to their culture. Thus, not everyone is a blind believer in TV. Even the most lemming-minded people get bored with the tripe that is trotted out. First ist was reality shows (and still is but I think it is waning) now it is renovation shows and chefs. I cannot stand either so I watch SBS/ABC or better still, talk to my family. Cherrypick the good (and there is good) that comes out of the media and those that hit your young when you are not expecting need to be explained by you as a parent. At least you are there to do so, so when it hits them again they know the context.
I was actually ignoring the ‘America’ part – it was more about how (as a collective mass) – people want to emulate what’s on the screens.
Now, I ALSO don’t imagine people our age (I assume you are ;)) when I focus on an idea – it’s more the youth of our society and how they lap it up. And they do.
Not to say there aren’t moron parents out there who DON’T do as you and me, and guide their children through the sludge.
I know of a few 9 yr olds, who have been taken by their parents to see ‘Ted’ – a 15MA+ movie – even the ad on TV had the bear dry humping a shopping scanner, with the girl he’s trying to impress being blond with quite a cleavage showing – AND it was released in the school holidays. I know this example is not related to TV – it was just to illustrate parent moron-ness.
Very few high school students watch ABC or SBS because when I say, “Did anyone watch…on Channel 2, last night?”, I generally get shaking heads, with a student saying yes once in a while.
And therein lies the problem.
Thanks heaps for your comment…Mr Gravitas? 🙂
Paula
So true – commercial tv is not for kids, and not great for adults either. I watch up to 3 shows on commercial stations a week after the kids are in bed and am horrified by the ads for all sorts of reasons – junkfoods, sexist, racist, gambling galore, mining (!!), misinformation. PLUS all the self-promos of the upcoming crappy shows they’ve been making down in The Shire lately… I prefer catching them online without ads.
Exactly! It’s definitely getting like that. There certainly seems to be no ‘G’ ad time slots any more. I watch only a few shows too – but it is getting unwatchable for entertainment shows.
Thanks Michelle x
Interesting, but there are so many varieties out there right now, it is hard to say. If people don’t like what they are seeing, they change the channel. Nobody I know just sits and consumes whatever is on…and well my sister is in the moviemaking business, so we talk about tv and film as another version of storytelling, analyzing the characters, the plot, etc. etc..I wonder how the Olympics are doing as far as number of views?
Not sure – I haven’t had time to look at anything of the Olympics yet! 😉
When I posted that picture, I forgot to write two things:
1. That it wasn’t at America only – more a ‘developed world’ mentality
2. I was thinking predominantly of our youth, who engage so closely to TV shows and movies.
We have a couple of doozies on TV at the moment and teens have little else to watch simply because they don’t go to other types of programming – especially as the crap ones saturate the market…and that’s just the free-air-channels.
I don’t have cable TV, but most households here do. I can only imagine what else they’ve got access to there.
I’m a Drama teacher and LOVE looking at storyline, plot, characterisation etc…I guess that’s why it incenses me so much to see such tripe.
x
We only get free-air channels at my house, too, so we end up getting shows that I already know about from the library on DVD or watching old movies since there is hardly ever anything good on. I make sure to ask analytical questions, too, if we ever do encounter the “tripes’! I hope that will help them to think about things with a discerning mind so that they just don’t sit there and absorb everything they see without a thought. But, it’s a work in progress, so I don’t know yet if it will help them grow into healthy minded gentlemen with healthy boundaries yet. But I sure do try! Thanks, questionsforwomen!
The same with my girls. I was away this weekend and my 9 yr old said that on the news they showed a story about girls wearing the ‘wrong clothes’. I said to her, “Isn’t it interesting that the same tv station puts shows on with girls in the ‘wrong clothes.’ My gripe is also with the commercials – they’re not age appropriate any more. Anything goes at any time. So frustrating. But yes, I’m in my girls’ ears as well.
My name is Paula! 🙂 x
Okay, Paula:)…so at least we know that there is more than one of us trying to help our kids see straight, eh? That is encouraging!