The times, they are a changin’
100 years ago, or so, when I was born, there was no internet. There was very little Television, and Radio was the Medium of Choice (not that you had a choice.) I suppose there was also Broadway, and Vaudeville. Sometime in the 1950s television started making it big. I still remember when we got our first Black and White TV, a Stromberg-Carlson. While I was at Penn in the early sixties, I would always find time to watch Laugh-in, the Smothers Brothers, and other really cool shows. Most of the time, however, I didn’t watch television. I hung out with other people and talked.
Fast forward to the present.
My son challenged me to take a course called ”New Media” at Tunxis Community college where he also attends. He is 15 and almost has enough credits for his AA from Tunxis, and has taken a variety of ancient language courses at Trinity as well.
My son is bright, young and hip. He thinks I am totally uncool and, if you will, Media Illiterate. He has tried to get me to play his Wii, and I did. Once. Boring! Zelda? Boring. Mario? Boring.
Huge time wasters. I know people who do not have real lives. They only have virtual lives. One such woman, for example, was called once by my wife to talk about our kids getting together. After a few minutes, the woman was obviously uncomfortable and asked my wife if, instead of calling her and talking on the phone, she could IM her instead.
I think huge numbers of people have completely lost the ability to interact on a personal level, and can only interact with their computers. This is really sad. Imagine if the fondest memory you have is not of Graduation Day, going to parties, driving around with your buddies until dawn but instead of finally getting to the end of Zelda, and rescuing the princess.
Bytheway, my son is NOT one of these people, but could easily become one if we let him. We homeschool, and happily, there are tons of activities for homeschoolers with their peer group. We used to have a homeschool dance every two weeks, and tonight, for example, there is a homeschool twister party.
Anyway, there are tons of people nowadays who only have virtual lives. Any interpersonal interaction they have is only with others who play the same games. This generation is becoming socially illiterate, and unable to analyze things logically. Because of the game culture, all they can do is relate to a good story, not a logical argument. IQs are falling. Learning FACTS is less important since, after all, you can always look them up on the internet. (Do you really believe that everything on Wikopedia is true?) In short, the country is going to Hell on a Bobsled.
If I had my way, I would remove every computer from every classroom in the country, and teach the basics. If people cannot read or write or do basic math, what do they need a computer for?
God’s Waiting Room, where people go right before they die, used to be poplulated with people talking about their exiting lives and all the wonderful people they knew. Nowadays it is full of people trying to win one last time at Super Mario.
February 5, 2008 at 10:35 am |
THE SUPERBOWLI didn’t watch the superbowl, or most of it anyway. I watched about 10 minutes of the game and sadly, missed the halftime show completely. But fortunately, the commercials, what I really wanted to see, are all over the internet.
Superbowl commercials are all over the internet. That’s probably the best thing about the Superbowl, at least for me, since I really don’t like to watch football. The commercials can really show you the state of this country’s morality. By this I mean, advertisors try to come as close to the line as possible in making these commercials, without actually stepping over the line. But even those who step over the line still put their commercials on the Internet.
One in particular cought my attention.
https://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/media/lounge.asp?isc=gooyg01agc&ci=11591
This commercial is interesting because it straddled the line, the commercial itself being banned from the SuperBowl, but a teaser to it, getting on the Superbowl.
The commercial that got on features Danica Patrick (Young female Nascar Driver) unzipping her racing suit, not to really reveal any cleavage, but to suggest that the banned ad went a lot further.
If you go to the banned ad, as I did, the reason it was banned becomes obvious. The ad shows some Holywood event and beautiful women are arriving in limos. Each one of them had their pet beaver with them. The reporters ooh and aah. Then Danica suddenly appears in her racing suit, and the reporters ask her where her beaver is. They walk away in disgust. Then she says, “At godaddy.com, I get enough exposure so that my beaver can remain safe and out of sight.”
Now there is no nudity or even suggested nudity in this commercial, but the “naughtiness” is the pun on the word “beaver” between its street meaning and its dictionary meaning of a furry little animal.
Personally, I found the commercial gross and juvinile, but it is right on the line. It shows where American morals are. Indeed, even Shakespeare made dirty puns, just as raunchy as this one, and probably the audience was just as vulgar.
Does this mean that things haven’t changed since the time of Shakespeare? Or does it mean that the most successful writers get their inspiration from the same source?
Does it mean that a small group of creative advertisers have tapped into the collective superego of America? Or does it mean that a small group of very bright people, such as Shakespeare, CONTROL the superego of America.
I personally find this fascinating, and will pick this topic up again from time to time.
February 6, 2008 at 9:53 pm |
AMaZON.COM
One part of our assignment was to familiarize ourselves with Amazon.com. Happily, for me that is easy. That is probably my most used website.
Our family probably spends more than $1,000 per year at Amazon.com. We love books. One book we recently purchased there was AFLUENZA, by DeGraff, Wann and Naylor. This book mentions Amazon.com, but not in a favorable light.
Amazon is seen as a culture killer, a giant that killed off and is killing off small business. Sure, it is very easy, when looking for a book, to go to Amizon. There have only been a few times I couldn’t find what I was looking for there. (E.g., a 1888 edition of a Greek and Latin Classical Dictionary.) How many book stores can compete with Amazon.
Homo Sapiens Consumens likes convenience. He likes TV Dinners instead of preparing everything from scratch (except, thank God, for my wife). He likes shopping from the convenience of his living room. The Ma and Pa Bookstore around the corner doesn’t stand a chance.
The authors of Affluenza had two complaints about Amazon and Internet shopping:
First, it kills off local business. I think that complaint is just plain wrong. Sure it is easier to shop at Amazon, but if Ma and Pa Booksellers have any brains, they too will have a presence on the Internet. Or maybe, their only presence will be on the Internet. It is ridiculously easy to set up shop on the Internet. Anyone who can figure out how to work Ebay and Paypal can do it. If anything, the Internet is an incentive for new businesses, not a death march for them.
The second complaint, unfortunately has more validity. The Afluenza authors complain that Internet shopping rules out one of the nice things about old time shopping, the ambiance. Yeah, sure the internet is more convenient than going out to a bookstore, but is it better? At bookstores you can get into conversations with people and exchange ideas and thought. That alone is worth the trip. I have to say, some of the best conversations I have ever had in my life took place in bookstores.
If I had to pick out one characteristic of our society that I think the Internet is promoting more than any other, I would have to say it was isolation. On the internet one shops alone; one argues alone; one lives alone. I have heard of long distance relationships, dating type relationships taking place primarily on the internet. In some cases, people who never meet have a “relationship.”
Not my cup of tea. The internet has its uses, but dating isn’t one of them. I grant you shopping on the internet, if it is not for books, is probably okay. I never had a great conversation in a refrigerator store, or shopping for shoes. But some things, it really is better to buy in person.