08/12/2003 - Halfhead (some edits post 2003)

5: TV, how it is destroying our consciousness and it's impact on Western Culture.

TV..... I've always said, even as a young kid, that TV is just a distraction from the potentials of our mind. I also believe that pop radio, novels(books) and other forms of media are also a distraction. [ I would like to add that, not just because I love and always have loved playing video games, but because video games CAN have a positive purpose, that I won't add them to the list. Hand/eye coordination for example, but more importantly, Role Playing Games(RPGs) such as, the Final Fantasy series, Secret of Mana, Ultima 4...(ct) These types of games cause the player to excessively think. Getting "stuck" was common, intelligent thought lead to the completion of RPGs. But that is another story

TV is HIGHLY addictive! It can influence young and old minds with ease and can create scenarios within your subconsciousness to prepare you for violent acts that you are forced to do against other humans. I'm referring to war. More on this later.

(Some of the information given here are from several articles.)
"Watching TV causes your brain activity to switch it's active side from left (responsible for logical thought and critical analysis) to the right side. This is significant because the right side of the brain does not critically analyze incoming information, instead it uses an emotional response. This means there is little or no analysis of incoming information.(ct)
Right brain activity causes the body to release chemicals which make it feel good (these are called endorphins, a natural sedative with similar properties to heroin).

It is therefore not only possible, but probable, to become physically addicted to TV. This ensures constant daily exposure, a critical factor needed to program the mind."

Ok so as he has pointed out, TV is addictive, and when you consider the amount people watch each day and the kind of information the media puts through this box, it scares the shit out of me. But it also made me very aware of what kind of mind set we are creating for the younger generations. This is where I draw the line. We must be responsible for the growth of our children's minds, especially at a younger age. They watch TV because WE allow it.

Kids are getting more and more unintelligent yet more and more smart. But this isn't helping us. This only creates a community of people smart enough to do any job, but not intelligent enough to build independent, creative thought. Ever heard of "engineering for stupdity? This is why you see such horrible "music" these days. No more creativity, only stimulation of the brain... (Much more of this in greater detail in another topic)(ct)

"The first 2 years of life are considered a critical time for brain development. TV and other electronic media can get in the way of exploring, playing, and interacting with parents and others, which encourages learning and healthy physical and social development."

Not much needs to be said here.... clearly TV will have a negative impact of the production of a child's mind. It is up to us as the Adult/Guardians to assure we do not get our kids addicted to TV at such a young age.

If TV has an addictive impact on the brain, then that would also mean our hypothalamus would be creating peptides and our cells building receptors for those peptides. If that is the case then excess consumption of TV would decrease good nutrition we absorb from foods and other sources of energy, because the receptors are feeding off watching too much TV. I want to discuss the topic more rather than throw information at you. There are plenty of books and medical journals on the net you can read to increase your knowledge about this subject.

"You may think that TV does no harm because you know it’s not real, but did you know that your subconscious believes it to be real? This is why your heart beats faster whilst watching a suspenseful horror films. After the 2nd World War the US Army recognized the need to create a soldier that was more willing to kill. This came after reports that many soldiers would purposely miss or aim low when shooting the enemy. Soldiers did not want to kill, and when they did kill they would feel lots of remorse.
To remedy this, one method that was used (amongst others) was to watch violent images on screen, especially before going into battle. The effect was to desensitize the solider to violence, thereby making them more willing to kill.
Skip forward 50 years to the Iraq war and what do you see? “Hi 5’s” and cheers after shooting or bombing the enemy. That’s programming for you!"

Wow... I only read that today and that is a perfect example of the potential it has to brainwash our culture. Once again, think about the amount of TV watched on average each day. Are we all being prepared for a massive war or something? I hope not! But I guess if the time came where a western culture was to go to war, then they are already desensitized to the killing and you would expect, be more "successful" at destroying the enemy as well as possibly having fun while doing it. I can imagine people would even try to emulate movies or stories. Which brings me to my next point.

The way people emulate the things they watch on TV has gotten to the ludicrous point. As ludicrous as 4 female friends acting, dressing and drinking alcohol each week depending on what/how the girls on Sex and the City act, dress and drink..... TV has affected their intelligence SO much that they can't even decide what shoes to buy or a drink of personal preference. They have become comfortable with just doing what the girls on SatC do. How else could this be a problem to Western culture who watch, on average, up to 6 hours of TV a day for an adult and a lot more for kids?(ct)

Something I cannot dismiss, a new negative aspect of Television that I came across today. I don't know too much about this yet but from the little I have read, it seems to be a great issue and definitely one that needs immediate addressing. I'm referring to the "Obesity and Cardiovascular Disease Risk" that television can have on your kid's brains and the way that physical activities can help the brain from falling into this risk.
This site is a journal compiled of the work of 6 departments in Harvard, Royal North Shore Australia, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Simmons's collage in Boston.

"In this study, we observed independent associations between physical activity and several bio-markers of obesity and CVD[Cardiovascular Disease] risk. Measures of activity that took into account the average activity level over 8 years were somewhat more strongly associated with HDL[high density lipoprotein] cholesterol than was a single, cross-sectional measure. However, additional adjustment for BMI[Body Mass Index] reduced the difference. Inactivity, expressed as hours of television watching, was also independently associated with an adverse CVD risk profile."
This is a basic outline of the study. But there is a lot more out there, probably in a language we can understand a bit better, that would be able to give you the information about this. Hopefully we can discuss more and get some links together!
(Read more about this in high detail by searching "Leisure-Time Physical Activity, Television Watching, and Plasma Biomarkers of Obesity and Cardiovascular Disease Risk"(ct)

Is it possible that allowing our kids to watch TV in excess is what is causing obesity, CVD and other leading killer diseases of the human body and mind? Not only because they are sitting down for excess numbers of hours, but because of the chemicals our brain produces while watching TV in excess? If so, then is it time to take the responsible turn for our future generations and abolish the TV entirely? This is a scary thought for a lot of people. If someone told me that TV was going to be canceled when I was 8 I would have killed someone. That is how addiction works though. And unless we take the proper action right now, we are only going to get more and more addicted to TV and our bodies and our minds will both be vegetables and we will die only knowing what that box has shown us and never actually used intelligent thought to make decisions, and never experience such amazing places like the Amazon or the Ayauasca trip you can have and share with others IN the Amazon(Lots and lots more on this in another topic). Which brings me to the next, last and most important point...

Now last, but certainly not least... The big cahoona of the evil which TV is a high source for... Media/Advertising. And to me, the worst and most mentally destructive form of Media. Potentially the most likely to be the major brainwashing function of all Television and media history, nay, ALL of history! The way the sound and visual can make a baby instantly stop what they're doing and turn to the TV is the basis of a lot of the audio and visual techniques used in advertising. If an Ad wants to attract a person of any age, they know how to do this. They have put Ad's and shows on specifically for those who watch TV at certain times. For example, During the day TV has more shows aimed at older females or housewives. The Ad's that go with these shows are specifically in place because they KNOW females are watching. Sports, generally guys watch sports and the Ad's are mostly about beer and cars or something that Men would be attracted to. These advertisement companies aren't stupid, they are extremely smart and choose every TV show and Ad according to the people they KNOW are going to watch it.(ct)
To top this off, bulletin boards, live sport(at the grounds), highway, public transport, radio, the list goes on, are constantly advertising the shows or channels that TV will be showing. But, the Ad's written are directed at those specific age/type of people. And the radio program they are listening to is being listened to by a specific type of person already! They don't have to go far to capture the right audience. So no matter what you can't escape advertising telling you when and what to watch or do!

TV and other forms of media are very scary to me, because once someone is SO addicted to a certain show, for example SatC, then they will also be attracted by the many advertisements around the cities in Western Culture that feed their addiction to media. This will continually suck them into this false reality that TV provides. We will keep being brainwashed into buying things that REALLY don't matter. We will listen to or watch whatever rubbish media is providing simply because TV and radio doesn't encourage intelligent thought. Music used to be the kind of thing people listened to because they were interested in music. Going down to the local pub and listening to bands playing live jazz for 8 hours was a common thing, same with other genres of music. But now people only listen to the junk on the radio or MTV because that's all they think there is to watch or listen to, and it is destroying creative thought (Yet another topic which will be discussed in greater detail) It's worse than that even. It's not discouragement, it's purposely creating that kind of mind so people are easier to manage and sell things to. Christmas wouldn't be Christmas(the way we currently know it) if media didn't exist the way it does today. And this goes for all other big holidays that generate a LOT of money from advertising.

I could go on for hours.... Which I already have done. I started writing and reading certain websites at about 12:30pm... its almost 2am haha... So lets do what I made this FB page for! Discuss!!!!!

(ct)

(This is so old... ill read through it again tomorrow and edit where I have changed my mind )

Many spiritual practitioners seek to achieve exactly what you warn against here, and that is the quieting of the left hemisphere so the right can become more active. Not saying there is validity to either argument necessarily, but you are the first I've seen who has thrown up an alarmist view of the right hemisphere. In any case, I think it is dopamine that is responsible for television addiction or for addiction in general for that matter. Whether it's gambling, food, video games, drugs, tv, etc...dopamine seems to be the underlying agent here and I don't know how much of that is a hemispheric-based response.

I think that a lot of the arguments that you give for TV being bad for you can be applied to video games aswell. There is good television in the same way that you see your RPGs as being beneficial.



Are you sure that you arn"t getting middle aged and caught up in the trap of simply not understanding youngs people"s music and culture? I will admit to sometimes being guilty of this.

http://youtu.be/tNGK9ni4aSY

^^^ I agree. Horrible music is nothing new, and probably not on the rise. The truth is, for some reason horrible music has always been popular since the whole commercialized music idea hit the scene. The good stuff is filtered out by time. If you don't believe me, go to a Good Will, or vintage vinyl store and just TRY to find a record that is worth a crap. There was so much terrible music!

I think more than anything, our media, especially TV, is simply a reflection of our society. There may be some feed back, but there's so much garbage around because people seem to eat it up. If people quit watching, it would go away because it would no longer be profitable.

I beg to differ. Clearly, you do not own these fine albums, which can all be found at your local Goodwill:

I am hoping this is one of the parts you have evolved away from, this thought of books being just a distraction while video games have a more positive influence. What do you mean by "distraction"? If I want to sit down and read a novel for two hours in the sun, what exactly am I being "distracted" from? In fact, my imagination is so much more engaged, and I am more focused, while reading a gripping novel, that if I am simply distracting myself from some elusive enlightenment just around the corner, so be it.

Is "hand-eye-coordination", vis-a-vis video games, any better than learning a bunch of new words and concepts and expanding one's vocabulary, thus expanding one's knowledge of the world? We're not all "distracting" ourselves with Dr. Seuss books. It is only by reading widely and wildly that one is able to read more and more advanced works. There are some truly life-changing novels out there. Novels build and shape whole worlds and universes and influence people all over the world, for better of worse.

"5: TV, how it is destroying our consciousness and it's impact on Western Culture.

TV..... I've always said, even as a young kid, that TV is just a distraction from the potentials of our mind. I also believe that pop radio, novels(books) and other forms of media are also a distraction. [ I would like to add that, not just because I love and always have loved playing video games, but because video games CAN have a positive purpose, that I won't add them to the list. Hand/eye coordination for example, but more importantly, Role Playing Games(RPGs) such as, the Final Fantasy series, Secret of Mana, Ultima 4...(ct) These types of games cause the player to excessively think. Getting "stuck" was common, intelligent thought lead to the completion of RPGs. But that is another story "

Nonsense. Absolute nonsense, sorry to have to write. You have just lumped all of every culture's entire story telling tradition into a basket and labeled it "distraction" and have inferred that it has 1) no positive purpose, and 2) does not make one think, and 3) like TV, is "destroying our consciousness and it's impact on western Culture". (sic)

Then you go one to excuse video games from this list on the basis that they may improve hand/eye co-ordination and "cause the player to excessively think" (sic).

I did not read the rest of your post, but if you want anyone to take this argument seriously, you need to sit down and break it down into its elements and examine it logically. It makes no sense as written and only serves to underline the inconsistency of your thoughts.

Saying that TV, or novels or and "other forms of media" have no positive purpose is tantamount, logically, to saying that mathematics, or physics, or even logic itself has no purpose. Or, more pertinently, that a hammer has no purpose. While technically correct, it is nonsense. All of these things are tools, and the purpose lies in their employment, not in and of themselves.

A hammer can be used to build a house or break its windows.

Cheers,

JBArk

TV is a neutral medium. There's nothing wrong with it. Not with Novels(books) either.
It's the content of said media that can be positive or negative. I'll gladly agree
with you that TV is predominantly filled with negative, unintelligent rubbish.

There IS however SOME television I DO enjoy watching. Discovery Science when there's actually Science on it
I like learning about all sorts of sciences. Imagine the potential of TV to educate the masses and raise general intelligence and keep it high.

TV could educate people more on health & the body, psychology, technology, chemistry, various cultures & their history, meditation, yoga, philosophy, arts, music...etc etc.

So TV is not the culprit, but the worthless content that that medium is being saturated with is.




I think your rant against the TV in ways is similair to Terence McKenna's rant against culture, with which I also disagree. I think culture too, like TV, is a neutral medium that can get infected by bad content/ideologies, but also by good content/ideologies. He was right about our "cultural engineers" feeding us harmfull rubbish, but wrong to condemn the whole medium that is culture. So too I think you're right about there being far too much rubbish being fed to people through TV, but wrong to condemn the whole medium that is TV.

I don't necessarily think TV is evil...if approached with an open, almost sarcastic, mind. For example, you can't take the 5 o'clock news too seriously - 50% of it is filled with garbage about celebrities and mass entertainment that doesn't really matter. I do avoid TV completely now, only because of the advertisements; I occasionally enjoy watching a movie, or individual episodes of TV shows, but the way that your mind is just flung towards products at regular 10 minute intervals on cable almost scares me a little bit; mostly because I remember back when I had the whole "the guy in the commercial has item X, Y, or Z, or is driving X, Y, or Z, so if I do too, I'll be happy" mentality.

Viewing the whole web of mass media as an "outsider" really changes your perspective on cultural values - an occurrence that was helped in no small part by entheogens.

^^^ This!

Once you get outside the sphere of the way TV can mentally program you it can actually be quite amusing to view all the advertising and fake reality shows from an outsiders perspective and see the angles they go too to brainwash the masses. It can also be incredibly irritating if I'm in a bad mood.

I never switch on regular television myself but my wife usually has it on for a few hours in the evening so I occasionally catch the inanity of most of TV programming and mass media presentation in the background whilst I'm doing other things.

I agree to it being a neutral medium and you can very occasionally find some good stuff outside of the usual reality TV hogwash.

^ Kansas City Shuffle :/

This is another thing I've noticed, most notably when I'm at my parents' house, who are hopeless TV junkies - they keep it on ALL THE TIME! It doesn't matter what room they're in, what they're doing, etc. - it's always on no matter what (even when they're trying to sleep), even if it's just to have background noise. I've noticed people do the same with radios. Why is everyone so afraid of silence? It's almost as if they'll get lonely, depressed and suicidal if there's not some constant nagging noise in the background to distract them. In my opinion, not being able to just sit in the quiet or needing a constant distraction is an indication of a lot of anxiety inside - however, instead of facing problems, it's easier just to drown it out with "The Real Housewives of [Wherever]."

True Akasha. Many people are affraid of silence because in it they are confronted with their own latent fears, grief & malcontent. People are supposed to face these negative feelings and get to the root of what's causing them and heal that. Instead they push their head into the ground like austridges, because appearantly they only want to see happy, joyfull things in their minds and in reality. When an urgent, but unpleasant information is handed to them they boldly reject it, as if to say:
"Give me only information that makes me smile: If there's heavy or in any way unpleasant information don't bring it it me, in fact hide it from me"

Such a very immature trait far too many "mature" people have.
And thus they use TV as distraction. Somehow I also think alot
of people who feel very lonely use TV to fool themselves into
feeling they have company; TV seems to be talking to you. So does radio.
Rationally we know we´re alone, but on some simplistic level of mind this
gives the feeling of having company and being spoken to.


I rarely watch TV and when I do it is to slow down my mind when it´s going too fast.
Usually I do this before sleep to unwind. But I just cannot understand ppl watching TV for whole days.

Yes! I agree on this unequivocally!

I would much rather not have it on at all, though as a musician, I do like to have music playing sometimes whilst I'm surfing the net (mostly chill stuff, indian raga, etc). I do love my silence too though, very much so. Nothing beats a bit of time with nothing but my thoughts as company.



This is how it is for me. 9/10 the only time I purposeless sit (or lie) down to give 100% attention to the idiot box is when I am getting into bed and need to unwind the mind into the land of nod, and always with a good DVD of my choice and not with some god damned preprogrammed television with reality shows and ads.

too many words, can't be bothered to read them....
.. i wonder what's on tv right now.....

Strange you mention that you're a musician, because I am as well. However I've noticed that in the past few months after making some changes to my life (avoiding TV, walking for a few hours a day, trying to live life in general at a much slower, more relaxing pace), I don't particularly enjoy music anymore either. I feel that listening to it is just irritating and bothersome and rarely can find the motivation to even pick up an instrument and play for pleasure - and I wasn't just a "part-time" musician either; at my busiest, I played with two bands who practiced/gigged regularly and did my own studio work in which I did all the instrumentation. Now, I just don't care for it at all. Although I am still young and naive, so who knows what will happen next?

Dude! Dont knock Buck Owens!

And as far as "Ken" goes, idk what he sounds like, but using a glamour shot for your LP cover is ..a stroke of absolute genius! Those teeth!
I hope I wont be seeing that in hyperspace this evening

Me too man, I make my living between teaching guitar and gigs on the weekend. I have a few original projects as well as session stuff for solo artists. I still love to listen to music though but i also appreciate silence.

You'll find your way back to music I'm sure, sabbaticals from your passion can be a real good thing. I usually like to have at least a week or two break a year without the necessity to have to play music and put food on the table.



Ha ha, well played sir