Television is Evil

How Television Colors Reailty

Last week, I had to call Verizon to request that they stop their automated marketing program for DSL add-ons from constantly ringing me up and pleading with me to activate Broadband Essentials. The Verizon rep was happy to comply, and then, following her script, asked me if I was interested in their new television service.

"Television is evil," I replied immediately, and a long silence ensued.

I don't remember exactly when I concluded that television was evil. I haven't judged many things evil in my life, I'm usually willing to settle for good or bad. But TV crosses the "bad" line like a pusher handing out crystal meth candy in the schoolyard. "Let me babysit for your children, your shut-ins, your elderly," croons the television. "Let me bring some light into their lives, and into your life as well. Why, if you don't like me, you can always change the channel or turn me off."

But it's a false light that television offers, an illusion created by colored dots that trick our eyes into seeing human faces and emotions on the screen. Not our family, neighbors or friends, but made-up people in made-up situations offering quick gratification to our basest instincts. The endless commercials for titillating shows that invite viewers to either sympathize with victims or take vicarious thrills from their suffering.

Television is the ultimate media for spreading lies and half truths. Reporters and newscasters may be careful about the words they choose (some aren't), but nothing is easier than offering a distorted view with video footage. It all comes down to where and when you point the camera. We're all trained to accept that seeing is believing, but what we're seeing on the TV news is what producer has chosen to show us. Equally bad is the new obsession with giving equal time to "both sides" of the story. Welcome to the moral morass of "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter." Who believes anymore that a nation has the right to promote it's own values?

Television gives us all the illusion of knowing more than we do about the world by making it so easy for us to form impressions from pictures. It's the positive things about television that make it so dangerous. Television doesn't add to our time available to learn from social interactions, books or newspapers, it sucks up time like a black hole. Yes, television can educate, but does anybody really believe that several decades of Sesame Street have resulted in a better educated America? I remember when PBS offered science shows that featured science. Last few times I tried watching Nova all I saw was animations and reenactments. I'll bet you dollars to donuts that there are viewers who believe they know just what it was like when cavemen roamed the earth, though they may be a little hazy on where that archival footage came from. But it's fun to watch, and oh, so easy to understand.

I stopped watching TV at home last year, I saw part of the Superbowl this year and part of a basketball game in a bar. I've heard arguments from well educated people that television is a necessity in modern life, and that depriving children of TV can turn them into social misfits. Take it from a social misfit, television is not a cure for anything. But television offers cures, and maybe one day somebody will e-mail me after seeing a commercial that goes something like this:

Does watching TV make you angry, bored, uncomfortable? Do you walk the streets at night looking at the colorful lights dancing off the ceilings in happy homes of your neighborhood? Scientists have shown that this may be due to subtle imbalances in the chemistry of your brain. Fortunately, we've created Telebrexin(tm). With Telebrexin(tm), you'll be able to sit for hours enjoying the finest entertainment available. Ask your doctor about Telebrexin(tm) today.
[Telebrexin(tm) may cause restless leg syndrome, nausea, loss of appetite or hair and certain sexual side effects. In rare cases, Telebrexin(tm) may result in the inability to walk passed store windows or displays where a television is active.]

After a long silence, the Verizon rep said something about understanding what I meant and went on to ask me who I was using for cell phone service. Cell phones? Cell phones are infantalizing, but I'll save that rant for another page.

Posted May, 29th, 2007 by Morris