Sometimes I feel like just walking out on my life - again

[P3nT4gR4m]

It's 9:20 pm and I venture downstairs to grab a beer. I pass the TV where my family sits enraptured as Ant and Dec feed some z-list celebrity a plateful of maggots or dogshit or something. I'm more appalled that the people I care about are lapping the shit up than the attention seeking fuckhead lapping shit up on the box. Welcome to the 21st century. Teevee aint even trying anymore. Two whole generations have been born and raised, plugged into the network. I can't help thinking the prophecies were true - this media really will destroy minds.

They used to have to justify it, back in the black and white days when RP stiffs would sell the party line on the news at 10. People were smarter back then, it took more work to fool them. That was then and this is now. A barely coherent borderline retard fucks up his lines and dribbles something incomprehensible in respose to a question raised in a press conference about why he, the president of the usa, is making a mountain of dead bodies somewhere in the middle east. That'd never have washed back in the day but now the viewers are satisfied with this answer. It's not even a coherent sentence but he was asked a question and noise came out his mouth - that's more than enough to pacify the people at home.

And here's me, settled down with these cabbages. The girl who fucks me and makes me laugh from time to time. The kid with the wicked sense of humour. I love these two but I can't help thinking I should do something about their unhealthy addiction to banality. "That's sad making people do that." she says to me. "Yeah but the shitheads keep watching." I respond "Give me a shout when celebrity chainsaw juggling comes on". Probably could have been a bit more tactful, I think to myself as she storms off downstairs in a huff, but what the fuck, I'm not gonna get drawn into a conversation about some semi famous fuckheads eating shit in a jungle.

I'm a free spirit - get me out of here!

[East Coast Hustle]

run while you still have legs.

[Cain]

I know how you feel.  TV really is the demon box.  Its too easy to just sit there and....do nothing.  Aimlessly flick through the channels.  Which is why I no longer watch the damn thing.  It reduces concentration, you know.  I know people who literally cannot think without a few minutes break every 15 minutes.  It also makes you see the world differently.  People who watch TV percieve far higher amounts of violence than those who do not.  Its a useful shackle of the mind, the box.

[P3nT4gR4m]

The real headfuck for me is when a tv cabbage asks me "how the hell can you spend so much time just staring at a computer screen?" I'm wired into the same cathode ray emitter as they are, surely it's not such a leap of faith to understand why someone might want a two way interaction but hell I've given up trying to explain it. I try to remain optimistic. The rise of consoles means that the vegetables might be encouraged to develop rudimentary problem solving techniques or improve their reaction times and spacial awareness. Fuck even voting for who they want to win pop idol requires some level of decision making. Sometime soon assholes like me are going to be streaming counter propaganda into their living room via converged tv/internet. Maybe it aint all black after all.

[Cain]

Yeah, there is a not so subtle difference between passively accepting what is given to you and going out of your way to seek it out, as well as the communication factor.

I do wonder though, about the Digital TV crossover over here.  It may open up more opportunities, but from what I have seen so far, it has mostly been colonized by US cable channels and the BBC.  Which makes me a sad panda.

[Thurnez Isa]

got satalite myself
theres good points and bad points about it
i got a few movie channels that only play B Movies and bad drive-in flicks
I like my movies so god damn bad that only a select few can actually sit through them with me  (which reminds me I gotta start reviewing movies again)
plus I got about 6 documentary chans - which are all mediocre but between them theres something usually decent on
and the sports chans obviously
but the crappy thing is you HAVE to get the main package and add on to that
and the main package is like 200 chans of CBC, ABC, ect. which I NEVER watch
so your paying for something you will never watch
its also neat to have a bounch of news channels
the BBC News isnt bad actually
CBC used to be the best but have been steadily declining over the years - though the french CBC is actually awsome as far as 24 hour news programs go
CNN is crap execpt for Darth Vader telling you your watching CNN
and FOX is crap and we only get sometimes
(their having trouble getting 24 hour Fox News into Canada cause the Provincial government doesnt consider it news  )
as far as the regular chans go the only one i could stomach is actually the BBC
mainly cause the BBC we get here is actually just the best of the BBC
They only have one channel (and they have to stretch their programs out for commercials) so they have to filter out all the crap before sending it over seas - still wouldn't pay for it if i had the chance
overall though
i really only watch tv when i get home from work and want to mellow out for a bit
and i love documentaries - execially about prehistoric life

[Jenne]

I don't watch SHOWS anymore.  I just can't.  I'll watch movies...that's it.  Nothing else, really, is worth the time.  I'll watch the odd on-going thing, esp on HBO, but I just consider that an on-going movie.  Sopranos DOES kick ass.  And BBC International/Lehrer Newshour is about all the news I can stand, either.  *shrug*

But even if the mate is watching teevee, I'm on here or there, surfin 'nets.

[Doc Howl]

I'm a free spirit - get me out of here!

Well, in theory we could, but it wouldn't help. 

Everywhere is where you're at right now (or rather, at the time of your writing).  The whole world is either a place where people eat maggots for entertainment, or it's a place where people eat maggots because that's the only fucking food for miles.

One or the other.  Bullshit or privation.  You decide.

[AFK]

good rant.  I can empathize with it.  I feel the same way in my house.  Except, right now, my wife is still getting over some shit that happened to her/us and so I'm not going to question her escapism, though lately at least she's been escaping into books rather than TV.  And even then, at least it isn't Reality TV shite.  I have to admit, I enjoy a show here and there that is "thought provoking".

But let's face it.  TV is the Easy Button for people wanting to escape themselves. 

[LHX]

tv is a medium

some people use it well

[AFK]

good rant.  I can empathize with it.  I feel the same way in my house.  Except, right now, my wife is still getting over some shit that happened to her/us and so I'm not going to question her escapism, though lately at least she's been escaping into books rather than TV.  And even then, at least it isn't Reality TV shite.  I have to admit, I enjoy a show here and there that is "thought provoking".

But let's face it.  TV can be the Easy Button for people wanting to escape themselves. 

fixxored for accuracy

[Jasper]

tv is a medium

some people use it well

Possibly very true, but far too many users and producers are working together to waste untold people's time, minds, and bodies with the garbage they play these days.

[LHX]

tv is a medium

some people use it well

Possibly very true, but far too many users and producers are working together to waste untold people's time, minds, and bodies with the garbage they play these days.

i agree

same goes for the airwaves, print media, and internet content

[Thurnez Isa]

tv is a medium

some people use it well

"The Medium is the message, AND Ill KILL anyone who Disagrees... FUCKEr"
/
/
/

[Jasper]

Medium is a signal, but not the whole message.