Mindless television.

Post Reply New Topic

I normally don't watch much television, but every now and then I turn on the television just out of curiosity and a show came on that literally made me naseous. The show depicted successful businessmen who have affairs just for the fun of it. It was pathetic to see a supposedly intelligent, successful man moan about the fact that he wished he had never started the affair not because he was betraying his wife but rather because he had nothing in common with his mistress but he couldn't end the affair because she wore thongs. I turned off the t.v. in utter disgust. I prefer books to television.

There must be a lot of people out there who really believe that television mirrors reality. I don't claim that things were perfect 20-30 years ago but I remember the content of t.v. shows back then compared to the television shows of now. I realize that of course fashion, etc. changes over time but the most disturbing element to me is how people treat one another in most television shows. Character traits such as kindness, intelligence, integrity, originality, etc. are sorely missing. It seems sinister to me that the aforementioned traits are viewed as somehow being "old fashioned". I just wonder if I am the only person who finds television, for the most part, to be utterly depraved.

Forget depraved. I've stopped caring about the Idiot Box because it bores the hell out of me. Even before the Reality TV craze hit (Read: hey, with these kinds of shows we don't have to pay writers!).

People yammer on about American Idol. Before that, The Sopranos; before that Will and Grace. I've missed out completely on a full decade of pop culture... and I don't give a damn. Turn the Idiot Box off, you won't miss a thing worth seeing.

The thing that annoys me now (and it's coming up hard, sports fans!) is when I want to watch a baseball playoff game and (Mr. Excitement!! !) Joe Buck, with his suicide inducing drone, points out "Oh look everybody, why if it isn't the cast of The OC in Row F Section 35!"

f**k you, FOX.

There is truly alot of crap on TV. But in the end, if people join tv shows knowing what the score is, then they can only really blame themselves.
Non-documentary reality tv is often depraved, as is most new kids' television. I don't think trash tv should be censored, but regulated for indecency and potentially slanderous/libellious material. Amongst other things.

I belive television does more than mirror reality, it shapes reality, ie young or impressionable people watch the likes of violent soap operas where everybody shouts at each other, and belive that is how people should behave.

I also belive this is done on purpose for reasons I wont go into.

I feel the same as the thread starter. Most TV is worthless at best. The only thing I'll voluntarily watch are PBS channels. Since my TV stopped recieving any of those, I never watch broadcasts on it. Other people in my house watch TV, which is when I leave the room. I've been trying to persuade them to only watch the news, and shows with storylines, such as House and Law & Order, but they still insist on not muting the commercials. The most obnoxious is the noise from sports team programming and the ads that pay for it.

Why do you think they called it the "boob tube" so many years ago before television got really bad?

I have a television mostly to watch DVDs on it. Otherwise I often joke its only a decoration and I call it my "bull$@#% box". I just dislike the lack of freedom TV offers.

It's virtually all mindless. Most of the time, I watch Discovery Health, Animal Planet, The Game Show Network or the Learning Channel. The only commercials I like are pet food commercials.