TV is Everything
Wednesday, September 19th, 2007 04:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
robinturner[![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rodneyorpheus fans should get that reference]
New seasons of Heroes and Dexter starting soon! w00t!!
Of course they won't appear on Turkish TV for ages, but there's always Bittorrent. And there is unofficial confirmation from one of the Heroes creators that watching the show on BT is perfectly cool - the series wouldn't have been an international phenomenon without millions of fans downloading it.
I really can't understand these people who say that TV is a waste of time, rots the brain, destroys society etc. Of course most TV isn't worth watching, but nobody demands that you watch the bad stuff. The same could be said for novels, most of which are not worth the time spent reading them, let alone the cost of buying them or the space they take up on library shelves. The same applies a fortiori to poetry. It's like genetic mutation: most mutations are useless or downright harmful, but it's the few that aren't that power evolution. Besides, all things being equal, nothing that gives you pleasure is a complete waste of your time.
As for TV rotting the brain, what are we comparing it with? Watching TV isn't as good a mental workout as solving equations, reading philosophy or playing computer games, but are these really the kind of things that most people would do if they weren't watching TV? (OK, maybe computer games are a contender, but the same people usually claim that they rot thee brain too.) There is even a theory - OK, a hypothesis - that TV has contributed to the overall rise in raw IQ scores that we've seen over the past 50 years. Compare the complexity of plot lines in, say, Lost or Desperate Housewives with any Tv series aired before 1980. Keeping track of what's going on may not be an intellectual challenge on the level with writing a PhD thesis, but it does stimulate the brain a lot more than I Love Lucy. Come to think of it, I'd put it at at least MA level, because there was nothing in my MA thesis that puzzled me as much as Lost.
rodneyorpheus fans should get that reference]New seasons of Heroes and Dexter starting soon! w00t!!
Of course they won't appear on Turkish TV for ages, but there's always Bittorrent. And there is unofficial confirmation from one of the Heroes creators that watching the show on BT is perfectly cool - the series wouldn't have been an international phenomenon without millions of fans downloading it.
I really can't understand these people who say that TV is a waste of time, rots the brain, destroys society etc. Of course most TV isn't worth watching, but nobody demands that you watch the bad stuff. The same could be said for novels, most of which are not worth the time spent reading them, let alone the cost of buying them or the space they take up on library shelves. The same applies a fortiori to poetry. It's like genetic mutation: most mutations are useless or downright harmful, but it's the few that aren't that power evolution. Besides, all things being equal, nothing that gives you pleasure is a complete waste of your time.
As for TV rotting the brain, what are we comparing it with? Watching TV isn't as good a mental workout as solving equations, reading philosophy or playing computer games, but are these really the kind of things that most people would do if they weren't watching TV? (OK, maybe computer games are a contender, but the same people usually claim that they rot thee brain too.) There is even a theory - OK, a hypothesis - that TV has contributed to the overall rise in raw IQ scores that we've seen over the past 50 years. Compare the complexity of plot lines in, say, Lost or Desperate Housewives with any Tv series aired before 1980. Keeping track of what's going on may not be an intellectual challenge on the level with writing a PhD thesis, but it does stimulate the brain a lot more than I Love Lucy. Come to think of it, I'd put it at at least MA level, because there was nothing in my MA thesis that puzzled me as much as Lost.
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no subject
Date: 2007-09-19 02:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-19 11:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-19 11:37 pm (UTC)I suppose the other alternative is a unique strategy. "You're such a Nazi that you couldn't even tell me what a good history volume is."
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Date: 2007-09-20 05:42 pm (UTC)