The Medusa

the real fact is that it only gives you one view; you can walk atound and look at the back of the Medusa machine, but you wont see the back of the scene that you saw of the front, nor will you get a better view if you get closer.....and that is the unmentioned part...imho

I program most of my waking hours each day to click off the teevee.

That eliminates much noise pollution.

And it gives me time to read, write, work in the garden, listen to music, take a walk.

In short, time to take my life back.

Invigorating.

 THIS JUST IN...

We thought we were going to get TV
But the TV got us.

Although I am probably going to be in the minority on this one, I think the original television set didn't have as negative effect on us as things like smart phones and the like have...  We go to family functions or out in public and it seems like that is all you see, people with a little screen inches from their face oblivious to everything around them...

Good morning kids! Welcome MBAILEY............................perfectly stated posts.
 
I wish I could say I watched less tv than I do, but it is easy to have it on while I do work. It is the good, the bad, & the ugly all in one box.
 
MBAILEY....................that is amazingly annoying & rude, but it certainly is way too prevelant.
 
I am not ready for primetime this morning...................I wish I had a bagel to smear w/ butter & creamcheese...............................

Rainy day - absolute decadence - returned to bed with pot of coffee (I have a nice insulated jug) laptop, a great thigh warmer  and switched on the TV. It's wall to wall drivel at this time of day, no attention span required I'm not really watching it, but living alone it's sort of 'company' Many  hours of TV have failed to turn me into a gun-toting granny. When my son was young TV watching hours were on ration. We'd go through the schedules and pick out what to watch. The TV was definitely OFF during mealtimes.  Certain stuff that my then young son wanted to watch, I forbade because I felt they were sending out the wrong messsages to impressionable youngsters. While it's fun to see Top Cat giving Officer Dibble the run around or Tom and Jerry doing unimaginably horrible things to each other it's not funny when the story is glamourising such behaviour using real actors.
I do so agree with mbailey on the subject of smart phones. People seem as attached to them as Linus to his comfort blankee. Pathetic. I don't think it rude to ask people to switch their phone off at the dinner table, I think it's rude for them to leave them on.

RoadYacht~ Your first post - my cat has the same problem with mirrors.

You have it right, MBailey, all the modern distractions - smartphone, iPods, iPads, Androids, etc. - go TV one further.  I think the real point is that when we get caught by TV and all the follow-ons we are no longer present.  I see someone walking through the woods on a beautiful Spring day with a gizmo catching their rapt attention, and they have missed the day and the place.  I do not watch TV at all.  We watch an occasional DVD.  I do not listen to the radio or anything else when driving - I try to be present to my own thoughts and feelings.  As Plato said (quoting Socrates), the only life worth living is the self-examined life.

My Mom says she would lose her mind if she didn't have the TVmachine. Sadly,I would lose MY mind if it didn't get turned off...So, when I talk to her, I reach over and hit 'mute',though she just speaks to me with out hitting mute....it is hard to hear her little voice over the constant din, but out of respect I let it go, and even though I have almost injured myself on many occasions trying to leap across great distances to punch that mute button to stop some shrill voice (that has been augmented to remove all the air/pause between words- thereby allowing an actual 75 seconds worth of talking in 60 seconds!)telling me about some bodily function that I somehow need to adjust to make me "better" ....well, All Y'alls, except maybe Lynn, have had that experience, I would guess...someone saying "if you're like me, then you have this awful itch on your_______, and you can get this creame/pill/potion for just $19.95+9.95 S&H,with an instruction book of how to ingest/rub/apply, a $200 VALUE-FREE......etc.etc.   DIAL ONE EIGHT BLA BLA,THATSONEEIGHTBLABLAOR YOUR MONEYCHEERFULLYREFUNDEDTHE SECONDTUESDAYOFBLABLA

Do your TV's suddenly up the volume for the advertisements? I hate being shouted at.

I've got the head of Medusa discreetly integrated into a pair of neckties. It looks from a distance like the typical redundant pattern of repetitive small images in a pattern done up with tasteful colors. Only upon close inspection does the detailing of the insidious monster become apparent. The tie is a reminder that we all confront forces that seek to beat us into submission, dampering our spirit of meaningful exchange of ideas. Some day I may retire these ties from use, but I'm not confident that it will be anytime soon.....

MBailey, Lynn, Hazel, et al -- You are so right about the new (to those of us who grew up in the techie-deprived 50's) social preoccupation with the (Not so) Smart Phones, I-whatevers, and even plain cell phones! That we all lived for most of our lives WITHOUT them, shows that they are NOT necessary, but now the present generation seems to want them surgically attached to their heads. I can see the emergency and family communication logic of having a cell phone, but to be talking or searching on one 24/7 seems to be neurotic. It is so common, yet sad, to see couples or families out to dinner and every one focused on his own little electronic device instead of conversing with each other.

Agreeing with the Mr. P "Medusa" article above, I'd say TV, music, and some films have in fact, brought bad examples into our national consciousness to devalue morals, teach bad habits, model destructive behavior, increase sarcasm and put-downs in teens, and numb watchers to violence.

Then, add in the rabble-rousers who flock to a crime scene to rile up the locals to riot, talk about race war, and incite mobs to ugly behavior, and you have the power of the TV news to do harm when the TV covers such professional troublemakers or gives publicity to socially disruptive movements. Add in the way the various news sites cover international events, and you have an atmosphere of fear, making us all worry about N. Korea or Iran nuking the world to oblivion, or another spreading anthrax, or even the huge monsters of "global warming," and "air pollution" to threaten us. Thank goodness I had none of that to worry about when I was a child.

Ever listen to cellphone conversation?  90% is "Where are You?" and/or "Whatchew doing?".

My first memory of TV is not having one. Sunday afternoons I would go to Larry Corby's house to watch The Roy Rogers Show. My mother rented tvs for the McCarthy hearings and the Giants/Dodgers World Series. When we finally got one, the only thing I was allowed to watch was The Mickey Mouse Club and Omnibus on Sundays with my parents.

Of course by the time I was a teenager I watched much more and now there are times when it does function as The Great American Fireplace. I tend to watch old shows in syndication and cooking shows (in order to snort in derision mostly), however every now and then there is a Downton Abbey or such and I am very happy to have my buddy (the tv -- or vt as my daughter used to call it).

RY and HAZEL you are 100% correct about the deafening commercials, but the other button aside from "mute" that people seem to forget is the On/Off button (oh I suppose thats called a Power button now) and the channel changer. I do not like television news and I do not watch it unless it is a live event.

When I was a child I was terrified of The Big Bomb (roll and duck or whatever it was)obliterating all of us without ever seeing anything on television about it.
And yes, all these handheld devices are overload for kids but its a new world...

I pretty much agree with all the above posts. We watch news ,some sports, some of the cooking shows,but use it as one would a radio having a choice of music stations,generally tuned to light jazz. Like Mooseloop  growing up in the mid forties without tv when we were young we used our imagiation to create the things we wanted to do.We actually though about things we wanted to do and figure a way to do them. This was in addition to baseball and fishing.When we built our cabin in the mountains we did not install a tv so that the kids would have to be a little creative when we were not skiing or when we were not hiking. They survived very nicely. Learned a little about the forest and managed to get in some reading. Now they say they really enjoyed.it.

It seems most of us will do anything to fill up the void....TV, I-pads, etc.  And as if airports weren't chaotic enough there are TV's all over the place in most of them...not just the screens for on-time and ETA, but real televisions blaring away whatever---where presenters really do just become 'talking heads'--you see lips move, but with the rest of the babble are spared the talk usually.     And last night I saw walking down the street a couple--you could tell they were together--he talking on his cell phone, she holding something in her hands and looking intently at it, rather than at her surroundings.          And, I know that movie screens in cars to to keep children quiet are a blessing on long trips, but it seems a shame that due to movies there's little conversation or interaction.  No Burma Shave moments for that generation, I'm afraid!    And I've been saddened more than once to see people standing waiting for a bus all texting or talking on their phones.  What about talking to each other????     

has anyone else had that sad experience of needing gasoline, and the station has a TVin every pump? all blaring away in unison,with commercials!!!and no off button? sheesh!

To any of you who grew up without electricity ergo TV, I can relate. In my youth just about everyone I knew including my own family could play an instrument, sing or tell lies with the best. The first TV my wife and I owned, I was a newly minted Sergeant of the USMC persausion,, just moved to our first rented house on Possum Point Road, Quantico VA. A used Admiral brand that lasted through several moves....gave up the ghost when we moved to Atlanta in 1958 and we intended to never buy another one. But when JFK was assasinated we bought a new one and the rest is history. I'm still a reader of books to labels on food boxes/cans....see just when you were about to lose faith, I got to food.  Good day to you. Come see us whenever you can now, hear?

Evidence to the contrary notwithstanding, I do know what a paragraph is. I just can't get this  sumbitch to honor my command...seems to run in the family not to mention my dog!

Does anyone else hate the reception they get with the new Digital TV transmissions?  I don't remeber the broadcast quality ever being this bad when one used the good old rabbit ears covered in tin foil or even at times with beer cans hanging on the ends.  I really miss analog broadcasting, all of my shows seem to "skip"like a scratched album.   

I am a true product of being raised on television (Superman, Sky King, Mighty Mouse, the Monkees, Ed Sullivan). I remember my first awareness of the world beyond my family and home was watching the evening news with my parents....Walter Cronkite was the only one my parents trusted for delievering the news honestly.  I learned fo sacrifices people made for their countries with the Viet Nam war being brought into our living rooms...the Six Day War...two Gulf Wars...assasinations  and attempted assaninations of presidents and world leaders  (JFK, MLK, Robert F. Kennedy...to name a few)....the parades.....the catastrophic events that shape our world.  Yes, I love a good old movie (GWTW) to take my mind off of the worries of the day, but without television and the good it does I do not believe it is such a Medusa. No, I think it is how it is used, as with any other technology.
 
BTW: I was reminded once again the importance of television this weekend with the sad passing of Mike Wallace.  What a tremendous contribution this American gave to us all through television.
 

and "One small step for a man,one giant step for Mankind"

Just read where Ozzie was suspended for 5 days.  What happened to our first amendment? I know those rights don't protect us from morons like Bud Selig.  If Reverand Jeremiah Wright can say what he wants about how God should treat America...Oh well.  FREE OZZIE! I will tell myself it's only a game.

I have not reached the ripe old age of 65, but for those who have, to have watched 9 years of television in that span, you would have watched on average 3 1/2 hours every day of your life.  I find that difficult to believe.  Let's conduct a poll.  Only those over 65 need reply.

"...TV reduces your capacity for rational thought since you’re presented with subjects that resolve themselves in a matter of minutes...."

This makes no sense to me, reading a book does the same thing, granted not in 30 or 60 minutes. But regardless of time, this is the essence of storytelling, you are provided the setup, the play and then the climax, as the reader/listener/watcher.

Why does TV do this, but not reading a short story, which would take the same amount of time as a 1 hour TV show?

Devices don't MAKE people do anything. That is absurd. People make their own choices. I have several screens going at once. Business and News/ Old Movies/ Dual screens on the computer monitor /and land lines and mobile devices and tonight I usually have a crossword going and script lines to remember. Do I half ass a lot of it?- Yes but I like action and I have learned to focus on the task at hand that needs to be done. Some of my best memories are rushing home from High School to watch Dark Shadows or dashing to the Student Center at lunch in College watching Luke and Laura on General Hospital or pounding the suds watching Jeopardy and then there was Sunday night as a wee one with the whole fam watching Hoss get his heart broken on Bonanza. Watching The Masters in HD is freakin' amazing. The same electricity that lights our living room kills a man in the electric chair. Technology is neutral. People make it good or bad. No advertisers. No consumers. No programming.  

TV can keep you sane when you're rattling around in an empty house by yourself.  It isn't all bad.

Paolos~My comments above may not fit with what I will say now, but there are four TVs in the house and I probably watch one of them 2.5 to three hours most days...especially if DWTS is on.

Whether it be from the distant chronicled and remembered past ,  existing in the  ether of the on rushing future, or part of the fabric of the ever present now; technology,......especially in any form of communication....... has been, shall be, and is a mixed blessing.

It is change, and like all manner of change it runs the gambit of being embraced for the solutions it offers, feared and dreaded by those who feel it may be leaving them behind, or observed and evaluated by those who would take what they like and simply leave the rest.

My biggest discomfort with technology is the exponentially increasing rate of change, the ever quickening pace of innovation.

I think it robs us of the ability to appreciate and master what is available in the now.  I think those younger than most of us will be robbed of the opportunity to put on rose colored glasses and think fondly of the past....the good old days when life seemed so much simpler and easy to digest.

I also wonder about the ability to take steps backward and 'cary on' should the need ever arise because all of that which we gave become so accustomed to and take for granted is suddenly disrupted or lost.

Just some Captain Crunch nuggets from a guy on the threshold of a nap.

Because, CaptMatt, it can take days, weeks, or sadly, years to finish a book, but it takes 30 minutes (commercials included) to set up, play and then climax a story on your sit-com, cop show, variety show, etc.  Society has no patience for waiting, they want their results in 30 minutes or less, or IT'S FREE!
 
 

Carol - Re: TV's in public places, as you mention, I must relate my lunch experience of today. We were in Old Hickory House at lunch, having a nice meal, but aware of the conflict of the wall-mounted big screen TV in the corner talking FoxNews with moderately loud volume AND the on-screen subtitles coming over the screen, while out of the inhouse PA system, piped country music sand a totally different tune:"I'm not here for a long time, but I'm here for a good time...!"

You'd think the mgr. or servers would notice the auditory conflict!! They could have turned the volume off on the TV and left the subtitles for those who were interested in the latest news (Santorum bowing out), and still had the country music there to entertain in the style of the BBQ atmosphere. OH, well, common sense is so uncommon!

Nice posts. I am writing this with my brand new iPad via wifi. Talk about miracles. Could any of us imagined this ability ten years ago? Anyway, I've always loved tv. I don't have a DVR however--I won't allow myself to be that addicted to any particular tv event. If I miss it, too bad (except when I watch it on line--I cheat sometimes.) I don't think tv rotted my brains, so maybe the young kids who can't go anywhere or do anything without their smart phones will survive as well. But I do agree with Carol above. Always being connected to a device, you may miss the beautiful spring day and the opportunity to meet someone new. But then, we've all met each other due to this crazy new technology.

Paolos - On your survey: I am 67, grew up in a small town in central Fla. where we played all over the neighborhood til dark, and never worried about threats. We did not get a TV until 1955, and a small BW one at that.

All those 30+ yrs. of teaching, I seldom watched any TV except when I was also grading papers and doing school work. It was on, but like background noise....I lived alone between husbands for 16 yrs., so sometimes as Nachista says, the TV is a human voice for company.

Today, retired, the TV goes on when I get up to see where the apartment fires and wrecks were last night, and whether or not we are at war in a new place. On Sunday, the CBS Sun. Morning new magazine is often entertaining and informative. Then, I usually do chores with the mindless game shows on til the noon news, and my significant other fellow runs FoxNews all day as background while he's reading.

I never watch soaps, but do like lots of game shows, Millionaire, Family Feud, Jeopardy...those with questions or "doing something." Then in the afternoons, switch to TV cable music (20 different kinds) "classic country," "easy listening," or "golden oldies" until the 5:00 news comes on....and int he evening after dinner, we use Netflix to pick something interesting (wish I could see a new Downton Abbey or any Jane Austen every day, but they ran out!)...and are working our way through lots of old detective shows. I refuse to watch mindless "reality" shows like Bachlorette, Housewives of ___? or Dancing with the Stars (most are "stars" people never heard of).

I admit to checking in to America's Got Talent and American Idol now and then to see if anyone has a remarkable presentation, but not for the chatter or commercials. RAther than watch ads, I'll just click around or punch Guide to see what else is on. Usually, that means going back to Netflix and Rockford, Columbo, or Magnum PI. I guess I am making up for all the years I did not have TV!

 THIS JUST IN.....

PHONE YAWN - The act of taking out a cell phone from one's pocket or purse, resulting in other people in the vicinity taking out and checking their phones as well.

Thank you Urban Dictionary for publishing the name AND meaning of this rude phenomenon....

Whether we are sufficiently internal as to eschew electronic delivery of news and entertainment or so needy for it that we are obliged to pay for devices that permit the recording of six programs at once against the implausible eventuality that six programs worth watching would all occur on the same date and time, we are all in this together.
We are railing against the habits of our children or theirs.
We either begat them, taught them, paid to educate them or stood in the way of the funding to get that job done.
They are on the brink of taking the joint over and making their own rules while struggling to survive under the enormous burden of debt bequeathed to them by our decades of indifference and reluctance to pay our own way.
I wish them all the best.

Wa-aay off topic, I can attest to the wonder of high dose steroids: no hip pain in the nighttime, easier breathing, increased flexibility… amazing stuff.

George Hall ~
You were close, very close. It is: "Where you at?"

So glad you found something that makes you feel better Stoney.
I'm off under the duvet. Nos da,dear people. x

In re the survey:  just turning 65.......first show watched was Soupy Sales....then came Ding Dong School and Captain Kangaroo and Howdy Doody and Buffalo Bob.   No, no, no,  not all in the same day one upon the other, but ...around the same time frame.    Family time TV was the Ed Sullivan Show, the Red Skelton Hour.  I remember the coronation of Queen Elizabeth seen via the television.   Sky King was my sister's favorite Saturday program, and, of course any cartoon was probably enjoyed by all.   Later as I reached my teens I remembered the Walt Disney program on Sunday nights and how homesick I always was at the hour when away at college.        I can't fathom having watched as much television as the survey predicates....books were way more important.  I always loved walking to the library and nodding to the lions guarding the entrance steps and lovingly running my fingers over all those lovely books that held such promise.   And the smell of the library!  Paper, paste, must, leather all combined to make the headiest aroma imaginable--just think if they coule bottle that!

NACHISTA...................you said so wonderfully what I was struggling to say earlier...............it's comforting when one is alone.........................I would have been ashamed to admit that yars ago, now, not so much.........................
 
TT....................Luke & Laura & Dark Shadows...................be still my heart......................
 
STONEY......................I am so glad you have found relief, I did not know you were in a lot of pain. Taking the pain away & getting some sleep is nothing to sneeze at.................be well..............

years.............doh.................

I was waiting to have tires replaced on my vehicle last Saturday, there was a TV in the waiting area.  I did put down a magazine to watch the first hour of A FEW GOOD MEN.  Another gentleman was absorbed in a texting battle with his phone and someone on the other side of cyberspace. I wondered what could be all that important for him to tax his thumbs so. It is an incredible age we have been blessed to enjoy.  Let us hope that our participation is pleasing unto the Maker of all this phantasmagoria. I don't know how the movie ends, one day I may stumble upon the second hour and the last eighteen minutes.  That would provide closure and I could get on with my life.

Stoney- Better living through chemistry. Pain is the biggest thief of all.

schlafen gute, y'all

Bebe...nothing wrong in admitting that.  In fact the TV and computer has helped keep me sane through these last couple of trying weeks.  It can't give you a hug but it can help keep your eyes and ears occupied while your heart and and your mind work out how to deal with the lonliness.