Life On Cable TV
I heard of this stuff from family members, but couldn't quite understand the attraction. I'm talking about the genus of programming called "reality" TV. The only exposure I'd had to this before this past month was "Survivor," a show on regular network TV that's been running for quite a few years.
Oh, did I neglect to mention we never had cable TV until last month? Sorry. You probably were wondering about my wondering why people were attracted to reality TV. Doesn't everyone know what this stuff is? Everyone but me and a few other hold-outs who've kept cable (or satellite) programming at arms' length for the last few decades. Basically I had no idea what the genre was about. As for Survivor, I glanced at it shortly after it debuted and concluded that you'd have to be completely lacking any kind of flesh and blood life, never mind the life of the mind or the soul, to want to observe the shenanigans of people isolated in some remote part of the world, arguing with each other, plotting to seize power over others, taking revenge on those who get on your nerves and eating insects or other revolting items from time to time. Did I summarize things accurately here?
No matter, now we've got cable, the result of our internet service deteriorating so severely that I was spending inordinate amounts of time restarting our modem to get a couple of hours of uninterrupted service. Pressed into upgrading our home telecommunications system, I bit the bullet and got the cable package along with the phone and internet, since the additional cost was di minimis, given the current promotional discounts offered. No HBO, Showtime or other additional "pay" services, but, really, a gazillion extra channels seems to be providing enough choice so far.
Back to reality shows, there's lots of this junk on cable. Again, I'm not spending any time with it, but at least when friends and family refer to some of this garbage I now know what they're talking about. So why bring this all up? Well, it's clear why those who know how to reason in even the most rudimentary form are now few and far between. While I always knew that the mere quantity of time watching cable or any other form of TV, combined with being hooked into laptops, smart phones, tablets and all the variations on these electronic gizmos was eroding the mental acuity of the average schlub, reality TV has uncovered a level of mental deprivation heretofore unknown to me. Then again, I should have realized that the evolving worship of the NFL, with the recent addition of rabid women football fans was the tip off that we've left the realm of reason and common sense far behind in favor of engineered stimulus created by media masters who pull our mental and emotional strings in their pursuit of greater and greater profits. Why we all fall for this still puzzles and disturbs, but at least I now understand the depth and breadth of the problem.
So here I am now tied into cable for the first time in my life, a participant in the intellectual, emotional and spiritual destruction of what was once accepted and acceptable standards of adult behavior. And all because Verizon stopped maintaining their copper wire once the installed they fiber optic cable that carries their FIOS service, leading to the steady deterioration of our old DSL service that worked so well for so long, thereby forcing me into the arms of the media masters who now have (they can only hope) another dupe with strings to pull.
Ah, so that's what that tugging sensation is that I've been feeling since they fired up our FIOS!
Oh, did I neglect to mention we never had cable TV until last month? Sorry. You probably were wondering about my wondering why people were attracted to reality TV. Doesn't everyone know what this stuff is? Everyone but me and a few other hold-outs who've kept cable (or satellite) programming at arms' length for the last few decades. Basically I had no idea what the genre was about. As for Survivor, I glanced at it shortly after it debuted and concluded that you'd have to be completely lacking any kind of flesh and blood life, never mind the life of the mind or the soul, to want to observe the shenanigans of people isolated in some remote part of the world, arguing with each other, plotting to seize power over others, taking revenge on those who get on your nerves and eating insects or other revolting items from time to time. Did I summarize things accurately here?
No matter, now we've got cable, the result of our internet service deteriorating so severely that I was spending inordinate amounts of time restarting our modem to get a couple of hours of uninterrupted service. Pressed into upgrading our home telecommunications system, I bit the bullet and got the cable package along with the phone and internet, since the additional cost was di minimis, given the current promotional discounts offered. No HBO, Showtime or other additional "pay" services, but, really, a gazillion extra channels seems to be providing enough choice so far.
Back to reality shows, there's lots of this junk on cable. Again, I'm not spending any time with it, but at least when friends and family refer to some of this garbage I now know what they're talking about. So why bring this all up? Well, it's clear why those who know how to reason in even the most rudimentary form are now few and far between. While I always knew that the mere quantity of time watching cable or any other form of TV, combined with being hooked into laptops, smart phones, tablets and all the variations on these electronic gizmos was eroding the mental acuity of the average schlub, reality TV has uncovered a level of mental deprivation heretofore unknown to me. Then again, I should have realized that the evolving worship of the NFL, with the recent addition of rabid women football fans was the tip off that we've left the realm of reason and common sense far behind in favor of engineered stimulus created by media masters who pull our mental and emotional strings in their pursuit of greater and greater profits. Why we all fall for this still puzzles and disturbs, but at least I now understand the depth and breadth of the problem.
So here I am now tied into cable for the first time in my life, a participant in the intellectual, emotional and spiritual destruction of what was once accepted and acceptable standards of adult behavior. And all because Verizon stopped maintaining their copper wire once the installed they fiber optic cable that carries their FIOS service, leading to the steady deterioration of our old DSL service that worked so well for so long, thereby forcing me into the arms of the media masters who now have (they can only hope) another dupe with strings to pull.
Ah, so that's what that tugging sensation is that I've been feeling since they fired up our FIOS!
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