“Everyone wants to live a life of hollywood so much they will kill for it.” “Television is not real life. It is fictional life.”
What is with people’s obssession of television and lives of the fictional kind?
Do we obssess over fictional lives on television because we feel powerless to live extraordinary lives ourselves in actuality beyond the virtual one?
Is virtual life our opium to distract ourselves from the monotony and drudgery of civilized living?
Is fictional television that enchantment and adventure that we all seek because the “normalcy” of societal living has become without enchantment,adventure,spontaneity, or excitement?
Television has become the babysitter in everyone’s lives perpetuating fictions which then people in actuality try to incoporate in actual living so much that noone knows reality from fiction.
To almost everyone reality and fiction are the same thing.
What is with people’s obssession of fiction?
What is with people’s obssession with idols and operas?
i recently wrote an essay on social networks… i should have included television.
we invite T.V into our homes like a friendly guest… and we are all entranced by what it has to say… Things like advertisements and fictional story lines create resonances in our head and in becoming more and more familliar with certain resonances, it is possible that one might base their logic around “T.V logic”.
believing that they will hit the american dream, that they’re gonna have 2.4 kids and freedom 45 or simply become a famous actress or eccentric millionaire… whatever your dream may be america will intice you to want it. I suppose that’s one of the underpinnings of the controlled american media… make america look enticing…
With varying lifestyles some people will be differently affected by television. some might grow up to be anti-television activists or psychopaths who kill victims according to the birth dates of their favorite soap opera actors, leaving happy birthday notes shoved down the victims necks… (note my creativity… which i attribute to television of coarse).
so with this broad spectrum we see distinctions. Yes some people indeed think that pixels are more desirable than reality.
Ironically we now have “Reality T.V” ("reality pixels "is more like it), and this just goes to show how dedicated the good folks who create the content are at getting you to invite them into your homes night after night…
so to answer your general questions… yes, some people are obsessed with pixels, the spectrum i defined has clear boundaries which range from completly against pixels to completly obsessed with them.
your exposure level obviously affects the overall influence it will have and also what you actually choose to watch…
but if you get the wrong cocktail of exposure and bad content, there is a chance you could become psychotic; Brainwashed.
Television is just another of the various mediums we have for transferring information, entertainment or whatever else we desire. Just like books, newspapers, art or whatever else we use to convey information, there are responsible and proper ways to use it and irresponsible ways. There are plenty of great books out there, epic novels, philosophical treatise and what not, and then there are also your favorite cheap and sleazy romance novels that don’t enhance anything but your pleasure and entertainment. Newspapers and print as well, there good papers and magazines and then there are your tabloid journals that talk about “Bat Boy”
T.V. is just like this. One could watch an interesting documentary on Ancient Greece or succumb to the latest reality T.V. drama. But to blanket and convey all television as “bad” or “evil” is wrong. One can use the television to enhance their general understanding of the world or simply succumb to the herd and become a brain dead zombie. You just need to be conscious of what television is throwing at you.
Theres a good book by Jerry Mander called Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television, he talks about the inherent biases that television can never escape. I’ll look through it again and post some of his thoughts, which are quite compelling arguments.
This is called augmented reality, the mix between the virtual and the real, and it’s more likely to happen then a matrix type of environment.
Sitcoms are strange. Laugh tracks are even stranger.
The thing I learned about fiction, more specifically, fictional characters, is that people want instructions on how to live better then the already do. By watching conflict, what most fiction is based on, the watcher learns from the character how to respond to extraordinary situations, something their lives usually lack. Its all practice and preparation for the extraordinary, what most people want to believe in. Usually the more superior the character comes out on top, even if he’s an anti hero, the more people Identify with wanting to be like or to know someone like that character.
Joker I’m writing a book of fiction right now, but dont worry, its main theme is escapism.
That people like idealized stories and tales to pass the time, help them cope through tough times, or as simple distraction, is nothing new. But what is wrong with that? Can’t fantasizing and dreaming simply be an extension of one’s existence…as real to the perceiver as anything that takes place in the “real” world, even if it’s not a concrete event, but merely a byproduct of consciousness?
But what is the harm in this?
The truth is, few, if any, examples of human societies/groups exist with no presence of myths or stories. Thus, no example of what you(Joker) seem to consider ideal human beings exist. Simply put, such behaviors are natural.
Don’t forget to include postmodern hyperreality or ‘augmented reality’ as you put it. I suggest reading Jean Baudrillard’s Simulation and Simulacra, The Matrix was very loosely based off of it (remember the “desert of the real”?; totally taken from that book). It explains how we’ve made Disneylands and celebrities to make our so-called realities seem more real; how we’ve commodified all values into prepackaged, easy to digest facades; the copies of copies of copies of copies that devalue the individual, idiosyncratic flaws of an image-concept. Most of all, T.V. is bashed the most.
Nonsense. “Reality” has not become anything of the sort, and fiction does not “describe reality better than it can itself”. That statement is paradoxical anyway.
People just are , and always will be, attracted to fiction(see myths, religious stories, etc.). They in no way are a more accurate depiction of “reality”. Quite the contrary. For example, if you think cop shows are an accurate portrayal of the occupation, you’re off your rocker.
To drown thirsty
In this salted sea
Of the luxury that was not.
Nature and power
Supplanted for the cute and entertaining
Permissability,
Of melting and flabby spines
Slumped on couches and victorian styled
Chairs.
Political herald
Display and appearance.
Cut and edited,
A more fluent and refined,
Cencored and civil
Deception.
The utilitarian mind
Of the centralized
Narcotic network.
Control as value
Mentally.
The captivating
Is the magic
Of the dieing human spirit,
Enthrawled in an obsession
With a lowering and limiting sensation,
Finding the truth both offensive and incomprehensible.
An active artificial conduit :
TV and the minds on it.
The whole race, earth, everything,
In small synthetic
Cancer.
I am gross and perverted
I’m obsessed 'n deranged
I have existed for years
But very little has changed
I’m the tool of the Government
And industry too
For I am destined to rule
And regulate you
I may be vile and pernicious
But you can’t look away
I make you think I’m delicious
With the stuff that I say
I’m the best you can get
Have you guessed me yet?
I’m the slime oozin’ out
From your TV set
You will obey me while I lead you
And eat the garbage that I feed you
Until the day that we don’t need you
Don’t go for help . . . no one will heed you
Your mind is totally controlled
It has been stuffed into my mold
And you will do as you are told
Until the rights to you are sold
That’s right, folks . . .
Don’t touch that dial
Well, I am the slime from your video
Oozin’ along on your livin’ room floor
I am the slime from your video
Can’t stop the slime, people, lookit me go
I am the slime from your video
Oozin’ along on your livin’ room floor
I am the slime from your video
Can’t stop the slime, people, lookit me go
