Wired Up & Down, Part 1
“The march of science and technology does not imply growing intellectual complexity in the lives of most people. It often means the opposite.” – Thomas Sowell
In my humble estimation the worst invention in the history of humankind was the television set. It was the beginning of a hypnotic march towards unbridled voyeurism, insidious sedentary-ism, and cloistered groupthink masquerading as expressive individualism. The countless modern distractions now take so much away from a rich inner life that it only leaves us drained, and longing for more and more media to fill the sagging emptiness, day in and day out. We have been duped once again, fair people. And the enemy is us.
Yes, it all started out so innocently. Those 50’s TV sets were such fun new novelties where our families could sit around and watch their favorite shows together. And yes, actually it was a logical outgrowth of radio’s popularity. I know I certainly had fun growing up in the fifties and sixties watching my favorite shows, or whatever I was allowed to watch. Because back then we were limited how much we could watch, because it always seemed we had so many other things to do.
Next thing that came were color TV’s, and bigger TV’s, and then cable, because early on we only had the three main networks, and eventually PBS. So as time marched on, more and more stations, and more shows, and longer hours. And VCR’s came along and we could record shows and buy videos of moves to watch on TV. More and more distractions. And guess what else? Drama. More and more drama in our life. If dealing with our own daily dramas wasn’t enough, now we got inundated with all these other dramas to keep us enthralled. But what else? Colored, distracted and tensed out, we demanded more. For why pay attention to our boring little lives when we could tune into something much more intriguing, and falsely satisfying? Why eat real, nutritious fruit with a blemish on it when we can have perfect-looking plastic fruit we can watch but don’t really have to eat? So safe and distant, but so alluring and demanding.
Wow, and then came the Internet, HD, and online gaming, and whole lots more eye candy to stuff our faces with. Such insatiable content appetites we grew. How do we have time to do anything else? And why would we want to do anything else? Oh, but then laptops, cell phones, notebooks, tablets, pads, and on and on, just kept coming. And now, I can do so much, all at the same time! Look at me and see all this time I’m saving. I can watch a movie on my big screen HDTV, while tuning into the news on my laptop, sharing pictures with friends on my tablet, updating my status on Facebook, Tweeting, uploading a video to YouTube, and texting my traveling wife on my cell (hopefully she’s not driving). All in a room by myself, with no real contact with anyone at all. A virtual life in a half-real world. Wow, we have arrived! Haven’t we? Or have we?
On top of all that most of us are fatter now. I know obese is that polite, politically correct term, but … We go outside less, we exercise less, we eat more, we sit more, and we devour content and drama like never before. And it all started more than 50 years ago with that innocent little black and white TV set, with the three stations and the midnight sign-off of the star spangled banner playing under flying jets. But at least we always knew that when that test pattern screeched on, it was finally time to turn the set off.
So now I’m wondering, do we have an off switch to turn all this content off? Or has this slope just gotten too slippery? And is it too late stop the slide? Will we continue to be spectators to life rather that participants? And how long can life go on without us? Maybe answers to these questions are right around the corner … (See Part 2 in the future)