[PLUG-TALK] Hacking in TV SHows

[Rich Shepard]

On Tue, 25 Nov 2014, Keith Lofstrom wrote:

> Watching those preening peacocks is wasteful, stressful, unhealthy, and
> stupid, and many people are naturally smarter than that.

   Wait ... are you writing about politicians now? The elections are over for
this year.

> It takes years of brainsucking nonsense to make people idiotic enough to
> spend 30 hours a week of their irreplacable lives staring cowlike at a
> piece of glass, ...

   I recall reading that for many (most?) TV viewing occupies 7+ hours per
day.

   On a more serious note, Keith, there are many people---too many in my
opinion---who do not read. For them, watching TV is an alternative to
spending evenings in the neighborhood tavern sucking mass-market, flavorless
beers.

   Watching TV is passive with all images needed to understand the plot given
to you in full color and, now, in high-definition huge screens that occupy
much space on a wall. Reading is not passive; it requires the brain to
provide images from the text. Unfortunately, this neurological activity is
painful to many and avoiding pain is a basic animal response. Ergo, the
banality of TV and politicians: painless, aimed at the lowest common
denominator, and designed to fill time so the viewer/listener does not have
to engage in thoughtful reasoning.

> ... when they could be typing insulting nonsense while staring at a piece of
> glass like I am now :-)

   Ah, but there's a huge difference between watching insulting nonsense
dumped into the source end of the TV ecosystem and engaging the mind (if
only a small portion of it) and the fingers in being that source of
insulting nonsense on a maillist, Web forum, or the newer forms of
impersonal communication: facebook, twitter, instagram, etc., etc.

Rich