Worse Living Through Better Technology
I believe that advances in technology over the last fifty years have only served as a catalyst to the breakdown of our society and, though I can"t stop them, I will try to curb the effects they have on my family and me. Television, being perhaps the most significant technological breakthrough ever, has allowed society to escape from reality and replace it with whatever is on the screen. 1 Anyone who has seen The Partridge Family knows that life really isn"t like that, and this can leave a person feeling empty and cheated. 2
The more television I watch, the more likely I am to become detached from my own life and from reality. 3 Meanwhile my own life gets put on hold and my problems don"t get fixed. It is very easy to take what you hear on any given news channel as the way it is, but maybe it is just the way they want you to perceive it.
If it"s not the news that"s being piped into the television, it"s something even worse, like the latest trend—reality television. 4 Sports programs, to my mind, have also always been a great distraction from reality. I find it amazing that I am still attracted to the result of a football game when it has absolutely no bearing on my existence whatsoever.
It was Halloween last night and, since I don"t have cable at the moment, I watched The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown with my family via YouTube on my PlayStation 3, which happens to double as a web browser. I told my kids that the cartoon was from 1966, and that back then no one would be able to imagine this program being watched on something like a PlayStation 3, over a network like YouTube, rather than on NBC, ABC, or CBS. Those were the only three networks I had when I was growing up. 5
A. It is too easy to get caught up in whatever is happening on screen.
B. I don"t know about anyone else but my reality isn"t like the reality I see on these programs.
C. I believe that this not only makes a person unable to identify with himself, but also sets unrealistic standards of what life should be like.
D. My cell phone is ringing, and I have to run.
E. Television also leaves less time for other activities that can stimulate your mind, for example reading a book, or conversing with friends or family.
F. I was able to convey my message to my kids about how far technology has come.