Sometimes I feel like unplugging my television set. Increasingly ridiculous commercials, lost in a sea of reality shows, it makes me want to unplug from that chattering box permanently. In fact, around two months ago, I decided to leave the set off all day. The silence did wonders for me.
Television for Americans is a way of life. We switch our sets on when we get up in the morning without thinking about it. Some of us leave our sets on overnight.
What would we do without television?
We would have to do other things with our spare time instead of tuning into the tube and tuning out of our real world. We might have to communicate with that neighbor we never talk to. Or we might have more time to do work outside or inside our home. We might spend more time talking with our children or spouse. I believe we would be shocked at what we could get accomplished if we disconnected from the tube once in a while.
We have people who are so taken with television that they sit like zombies absorbing every word and vision they see on the tube. This is the very essence of turning it on and tuning everything else out.
I believe our culture is obsessed with television. I remember as a girl visiting my grandmother. Here's what her day consisted of: Making breakfast, doing yard-work, feeding the livestock, cleaning house, preparing three square meals a day. You get the idea. She hardly ever watched television. Her main program of choice was the news at 5:00 p.m. Had she been even a third as obsessed and addicted to television as most of us are today, she couldn't have possibly been as productive as she was.
Commercialism and Consumerism
Television, it is believed, was created to inform and entertain us. But I am convinced that the television serves a dual purpose. And the ones who profit most from those of us who are T.V obsessed are those who profit from consumerism. We seem to see more commercial time than ever before. Big business cannot hope for a better money maker than that of commercial air time. This is the dream of those who want to sell their products and services. We see an item or service via commercial and many of us speed out the same day to purchase it. We believe we must acquire these things we see advertised. Most of the time, we tire of the product we just “had to have”, the same week we get it.
The Increase of Big Pharmaceutical Commercialism
There are so many of these pharmaceutical giants that have splashed their commercials on our screens encouraging consumers to “ask their doctors” about prescribing for them a particular drug. These drug companies that pay for commercial advertising are already making a killing financially off of their drugs. This advertising that you and I are getting progressively disgusted over just makes them more rich. In these days we now live, there is a pill for everything. Less is always better. Remember that goes for medication as well. If you don't have to take it, then you are probably better off without it.
I have tried to post a link or two on the Ambien and Vioxx lawsuits and backlash but am not able to. Don't ask me why, but every link I try to put up identifies them as invalid.
The News Media
The news media molds and shapes our beliefs and thought processes. Don't think for a moment that they don't serve that purpose. Watch CNN or FOX NEWS for an hour and then tell me that you are not influenced by what they put out there.
The news media was created to influence us and not merely to REPORT the NEWS.
We must all take care that we are not influenced in the wrong direction. People that work for the news media are paid big dollars to say what they are told. Money seems to make the world go around and the news media is no exception. The view they wish us to hold will first be blasted over our television screens. Those who don't believe this must wake up and face facts.
The majority of our news media is biased. Those who claim to be, “fair and balanced” are anything but. They are not balanced, and they do surely have a slant, especially FOX NEWS. And this slant can be noticed so easily it is ridiculous. Just because a particular news agency claims to be fair doesn’t mean anything. We hear those words, and most of the time that is all they are, empty words.
They control what we will hear and see. Do you think that you are getting all the facts and all of the news reports that are vital to you and yours by tuning into the mainstream news? Don’t be this naive. There are news stories that you will never hear from our mainstream media. If you want to find out all the news that is pertinent to you, don’t choose the mainstream media. You must go online to get it.
The news media attempts to mold and shape our viewpoint. What is the vehicle they use to get this accomplished? Our television sets.
If you want to have a sweet reprieve from the chatter you continually get from that box sitting in your living room, I encourage you to switch it off and enjoy the sweet silence that you may have forgotten was possible.
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