Re: virus: The Culture of TV

Eric Boyd (6ceb3@qlink.queensu.ca)
Wed, 06 Aug 1997 02:04:52 -0500


Tim Rhodes wrote:

> That may be a way of looking at it. I'm surprised you're not conscious of
> the Culture of TV. But then, these things always seem invisible from the
> inside.
>
> Try this experiment: Have a party or a small social gathering. Once
> people are interacting and conversing, turn on a TV. Now sit back and
> observe the transformation of conversation (or sudden lack of) in the
> room.

I've seen this... it really is very amazing. One thing I've learned is
that you can learn alot more about most situations by watching
*the*audience*, rather than the show.

It's like watching the *effects* of the memes and ideas, rather than
watching the memes and ideas themselves.

For those interested, Ad Busters did something like this too:

http://www.adbusters.org/adbusters/Articles/zentv.html

> Or this: Pay attention to how often the people you talk with use examples
> from TV to define themselves. "It was just like on that episode of
> Seinfeld where..."

These are the ones that annoy me... I don't get even 1% of those
references.
Really a good way to cut yourself out of the circle.

> I have a friend that was raised without a TV in his house and has never
> watched TV for more than 5 minutes at a time (usually subjected to it by
> friends) He's 35 now. It's amazing to me how often a group of people
> will be talking and he'll say, "So where did you meet this `Jerry' guy?"
> "Meet? Um, well he's on TV...he has this show, see..."
> "TV? Oh, it sounded like you were talking about someone you all knew. You
> seem to know more about him than you do about each other."
> "Well..."
>
> Well?

Ahhh, the simplicity of television!

Character sketches. Steriotypes. Bland, repetitive jokes. Short
attention spans.

http://qlink.queensu.ca/~6ceb3/Humour/TV.html

ERiC