Television: Irresistible Addiction or Dying Medium?
And, by television I mean channel-based, scheduled viewing, regardless of whether there are three or 3000 channels. In the Sisyphus household viewing on demand is alive and well, I average maybe five hours a week myself, between DVDs and streaming.
Ben Shapiro, in Primetime Propaganda, makes the case that conventional television is a seriously addictive experience:
We may not like everything that's on TV, but we can't turn it off. According to Nielsen statistics U.S. viewers spend four hours, thirty-five minutes per day watching television. And they don't always do it because they love what's on-they do it because it acts as a sort of narcotic. TV isn't crystal meth (unless you're watching Twin Peaks), but it's certainly alcohol for the senses. According to Scientific American, people watching TV "reported feeling relaxed and passive. The EEG studies similarly show less mental stimulation, as measured by alpha brain-wave production, during viewing than during reading.... Habit forming drugs work in similar ways." In short, scientists conclude that "TV does seem to meet the criteria for substance dependence." The power of television ought not to be taken lightly.
The conflict for me, a 15 year veteran of the Internet with a laptop and iPhone always handy, is that this irresistible addiction sounds deadly dull. For the little Sisyphuses, the addiction is clearly video games. I can get them to sit still for some movies, or an episode of House or Burn Notice, but their hearts belong to Portal 2 and Little Big Planet.
Now, Ben Shapiro has written a wonderful book tracing the ideological distortions and bigotries of television, and it is a great read that pulls together decades of data, most of it quite familiar, but now set in a comprehensive framework. And with television as his focus, Mr. Shapiro may easily be forgiven a bit of hyperbole in the cause.
So my question to Ricochet is, to your experience, how addictive do you find television?
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Re: Television: Irresistible Addiction or Dying Medium?
Ben will be on the Ricochet Podcast (along with Andrew Klavan) this week.
May '10
Re: Television: Irresistible Addiction or Dying Medium?
I haven't sat down to watch a show on our actual TV for over 2 weeks. And even then it was just an excuse to cuddle with The Man. Actual TV is soooo boring! I would much rather achieve a vegetative state watching shows on Hulu on my laptop whilst playing a video game or maybe crafting something with my hands.
Nov '10
Re: Television: Irresistible Addiction or Dying Medium?
How addictive? Not at all; I didn't have one at all from about 1970-1985, and then only sporadically since then (I didn't like having one in the house when the kids were small). I have one now, and I'll occasionally put on a DVD of a classic film, or watch the odd football game in the fall, but that's about it. I find regular (commercial) TV intensely irritating. FWIW, I don't watch computer video either, my soundcard has been dead for a couple of months and it seems too much of a bother to fix it.
Jul '10
Re: Television: Irresistible Addiction or Dying Medium?
HalifaxCB: How addictive? Not at all; I didn't have one at all from about 1970-1985, and then only sporadically since then (I didn't like having one in the house when the kids were small). I have one now, and I'll occasionally put on a DVD of a classic film, or watch the odd football game in the fall, but that's about it. I find regular (commercial) TV intensely irritating. FWIW, I don't watch computer video either, my soundcard has been dead for a couple of months and it seems too much of a bother to fix it. · Jun 25 at 12:41pm
That I would have fixed right off. Klavan on the Culture alone is worth the bother.
May '10
Re: Television: Irresistible Addiction or Dying Medium?
As an art form television is alive and well. Video is pervasive and virtually everywhere, in taxi cabs, elevators, as a p-o-s enhancement in retail stores. As a business model on the network and local level it leaves much to be desired.
I've blown this trumpet (too) many times and I shan't do it again here. Suffice it to say that those of us who work in the industry would appreciate every mindless, brain-numbing minute you can give us!
Jul '10
Re: Television: Irresistible Addiction or Dying Medium?
EJHill: As an art form television is alive and well. Video is pervasive and virtually everywhere, in taxi cabs, elevators, as a p-o-s enhancement in retail stores. As a business model on the network and local level it leaves much to be desired.
I've blown this trumpet (too) many times and I shan't do it again here. Suffice it to say that those of us who work in the industry would appreciate every mindless, brain-numbing minute you can give us!
Ack, once more I am the insensitive clod.
EJ, you are a wonderful fellow and I hope you never want for work as long as you might want it. As an art form, video has not even hit its stride yet, every year there are innovations, and a few of them actually enrich the culture. I notice that the credits on the latest effects movies take hours to get through. Whole cities worth of specialists.
And Nielsen will never count my house anyway. The time they expressed an interest they wanted to know my race, age, income, and about three pages worth of stuff in total. Mr. Nielsen and I are no longer speaking.
Nov '10
Re: Television: Irresistible Addiction or Dying Medium?
I spend most of my free time reading authors most of whom didn't write more recently than four hundred years ago. Seeing how teevee is a major interference -- and, yes, totally addictive -- I decided ten years ago to do without it. No regrets.
The internet -- and Ricochet -- can be addictive enough.
Shapiro is missing other data: Dennis Prager once mentioned studies showing that people who take in more than a few hours (or maybe it's even less) of television per day experience greater levels of unhappiness, even depression.
Basically I think teevee -- with a few exceptions -- is a pestilence.
Nov '10
Re: Television: Irresistible Addiction or Dying Medium?
Sisyphus
EJ, you are a wonderful fellow and I hope you never want for work as long as you might want it.
I'll second that.
May '10
Re: Television: Irresistible Addiction or Dying Medium?
A couple of thoughts:
I appreciate the good wishes. But the older I get the more I know my career is on the back nine.
As for Nielsen, my wife, too, always wanted to be in a Nielsen family. And she did get the call - about six weeks after we were married. That's when she found out her husband automatically disqualified her. She was crushed.
You mention the army of special effects people. I admire the work they do but some of it, like rotoscoping, is mindlessly tedious. And the "art" is quickly becoming replaced by the "science." Many of those names are computer programmers making someone else's creative vision possible.
Sometimes in television we do more things because we can do them without asking if should do them.
Finally, when we talk television keep in mind that there is no single universe. Ben Shapiro, Andrew Klaven and Rob Long come from the Hollywood branch. Then there's the sports world that I live in. News is it's own world and the networks and local stations are separate continents.
Jul '10
Re: Television: Irresistible Addiction or Dying Medium?
EJHill ...
Finally, when we talk television keep in mind that there is no single universe. Ben Shapiro, Andrew Klaven and Rob Long come from the Hollywood branch. Then there's the sports world that I live in. News is it's own world and the networks and local stations are separate continents.
Sports strikes me as a live event survivor in this culture. Especially in the land of widescreen HD and sports bars. Nothing tops the human eye for tracking the play and framing the shot properly. Of course, sports strikes are an obvious bummer. Billionaires warring with millionaires squared off to stick it to the thousands of little guys that make it all work every game day.
Do they have technical support in place to help track balls and pucks yet?
May '10
Re: Television: Irresistible Addiction or Dying Medium?
A couple of years ago when Fox had the NHL package they used the "glow puck." It had electronics embedded in it and glowed on TV. When it was hit it would show as a red streak. Man, it was irritating.
In baseball there is the "K" zone (on ESPN) and the Fox Track. But all of these are graphic applications. Nothing replaces a top notch camera guy.
The biggest complaint I hear from fans who attend football games in person? They miss the yellow 1st and Ten line.
Jul '10
Re: Television: Irresistible Addiction or Dying Medium?
"All Men's miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone."
I think this topic huge.
Television could be habitual, but that habit has purposes. It serves to keep One from One's thoughts, to list one.
Also, a distraction for others:
I was over at a couple's Home once when They began to exchange words. Their words began to increase in volume and insult. I was fast becoming uncomfortable while, obviously, They didn't care. I walked over and turned off Their television and suddenly They stopped talking and Their faces turned to Me.
"Y'all want to communicate. Then communicate."
Right then and there They had nothing else to say. I wonder.....
Mar '11
Re: Television: Irresistible Addiction or Dying Medium?
The only thing I watch on TV is old TCM movies, and I mostly DVR those to watch at my convenience. I catch ESPN in the Fall for college football, but other than that, eh, nothing even semi-regular. TV could be wiped off the face of the Earth tomorrow, and except during football season, I would care less.
Jul '10
Re: Television: Irresistible Addiction or Dying Medium?
EJHill
A couple of years ago when Fox had the NHL package they used the "glow puck." It had electronics embedded in it and glowed on TV. When it was hit it would show as a red streak. Man, it was irritating.
In baseball there is the "K" zone (on ESPN) and the Fox Track. But all of these are graphic applications. Nothing replaces a top notch camera guy.
The biggest complaint I hear from fans who attend football games in person? They miss the yellow 1st and Ten line. · Jun 25 at 6:09pm
Yeah, I remember the glowing puck. As I recall, Canadians (rightly) mocked Americans for being unable to follow a puck.
I do miss the 1st & 10 line in person. But that's easily made up by being able to see the corners and safetys at the snap. It's worthwhile to be able to spot when a play-action fake works.
Jul '10
Re: Television: Irresistible Addiction or Dying Medium?
Football has always had problems with the TV product being preferable to the stadium experience for most people, thus the blackouts in towns that don't sell out the stadium. I was in the habit of tracking by the yard markers at the stadium before the yellow lines showed up, back when George Allen was coaching the Redskins, and I very much prefer the stadium game where I can key on a player, evaluate the line play, and see the whole coverage scheme unwind. The downside is, no matter how vigilant, sooner or later, you miss something.
I think with HD that TV could use split screen techniques to combine full play views and the standard player shots. With digital it should be possible to offer that as an option or on an alternate channel, in fact.
The glowing puck cracked me up, but it was a good try. It took me several games to get the hang of tracking the puck while in the stands, on TV in the early days of Capitals coverage I don't thing the camera man knew half of the time. Nor the Caps, for that matter. I think we all learned together.
May '10
Re: Television: Irresistible Addiction or Dying Medium?
AT&T offers a Cubs multi-view which is basically just live feeds of six cameras. If you're into whip-pan induced nausea it's great.
Feb '11
Re: Television: Irresistible Addiction or Dying Medium?
TV is not at all addictive for me: I've never watched much, and since the Internet and Netflix, I watch even less. Indeed, when I've been watching a series on DVD and then watch a not-yet-DVD'd episode on channel-based TV, I find it almost unbearably irritating...the long strings of ads, the crawls about news events I already know about or don't care about, the network logo right in the frame, etc etc.
That said, I do think that a moving/changing video display, once turned on, draws the eye almost irresistably. A flight instructor I was talking to said that when he teaches on new airplanes with large navigation screens, the students have a difficult time tearing their eyes away from the screen and out the window where they belong, even on final approach.
Apr '11
Re: Television: Irresistible Addiction or Dying Medium?
When my wife and I married, we both agreed we had no interest in that cesspool, aka television, entering our house. We have never owned a TV, and now that we have children, that decision seems all the more wise.
I recall a number of years ago, a representative from Nielsen called asking if we wanted to participate in their ratings system by having a monitoring equipment installed on our televisions. I responded that sadly I could not comply since I did not own a TV. There was a very long pause. It was clear that my refusal was not on her card of possible responses. She had no idea what to say. Finally, she simply said "ok" and hung up. It was a proud and enjoyable moment.
Apr '11
Re: Television: Irresistible Addiction or Dying Medium?
EJHill
AT&T offers a Cubs multi-view which is basically just live feeds of six cameras. If you're into whip-pan induced nausea it's great. · Jun 26 at 8:10am
I suppose it's also great if you're into the nausea induced by watching the Cubbies lose from six different angles at once too, eh?
May '10
Re: Television: Irresistible Addiction or Dying Medium?
Frank speaks for me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1IzySRln_I