The Decline of Culture: Why do we watch ****?

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Yes, the genre known as reality TV is complete bunk. I'm happy to say that I am not a fan of any of those shows. Unfortunately, my wife loves American Idol, which is arguably reality TV at its worst. A group of teens and twenty-somethings prostituting themselves out to the world to get popular. Crap like that make me feel like my brain is melting.

 

A very wise (Person) once said "A person is intelligent... People are stupid." Unfortunately all corporations like sky and the BBC are run by a committee... But in their defense I do enjoy watching channels like National Geographic and the history channel. Not EVERYTHING is rubbish, just the astounding majority.

 

not true... why?
because a piece of wire can still recieve the signal.
because a VCR can be used to record BBC programming
because a radio still recieves bbc radio
and because a computer with TV out (read any modern graphics card)
can still recieve bbc programming and so does infringe on the bbc tv licencing clauses


in short, if you dont want to pay TV licence you cannot own a TV, a VCR, a radio or a computer with a graphics card.

 

Lmao. Great rant there, mr topic creator.

On topic: don't watch TV, you've got internet. It requires less put-the-bull****-aside skills, even though the remote control has more than one hundrerd buttons...

 

but only three that really matter... ctrl, alt and delete

 

Shoshino - that has not been my experience. All I did was write to the TV Licence people and say "I don't have a TV". They wrote back and said "OK, you don't have to pay a licence. Make sure you let us know though as soon as you do get a TV". There was no mention of radios, VCRs, or computers.

 

Bread and Circuses, thats what is going to keep the people quiet.

 

"...in short, if you dont want to pay TV licence you cannot own a TV, a VCR, a radio or a computer with a graphics card..." That's stupid! When they going to start asking money for breathing?
I can see that at least all the guys/girls around here share almost the same vision of the topic; even saying this or that I think we all agree that 90% of tv sucks, like some say, in the end we have the control so we control what we see. Finally, those shows, channels, etc., are in the air because people watch them, no audience = no show. Don't blame tv, blame who like them.

 

its not stupid, its the law

harbourboy, yes, i think it is let to slide if you dont have just the TV, but to the letter of the law it is based on the ability to revieve the programming of the BBC, through any means, which is why their recent advertising through the net has been made a stink of.

and sydax, the only reason the BBC survives is because of the licence fee, that is another stink which has been made in the UK recently.

 

Talk about the 'free-rider' problem. "Tell us as soon as you get a TV". Do they have a 'TV police' who go to every house that isn't paying their broadcasting fee?

 

hmm, Amazing how my mother's collegue is doing this and not paying a TV liscence, she hasnt even written to the council and told them, but they have never told her to buy a TV liscence, al she does is watch videos.

 

They claim to have TV police who come to your house but I've never seen one in the UK. I've seen them in NZ though.

 

Off topic:

A friend of mine in the UK (with no TV) had a visit from the 'TV police'. She refused to let them in and they had to go away. Then she wrote to confirm that she did not have a TV and it all got straighted out (but nobody actually ever checked).

On topic:

Although I whole-heartedly agree with the condemnation of the crap on TV these days, I feel that I should point out that they are not all the same. For instance I agree that big brother is a waste of time (watched 10 minutes once) but I quite enjoyed 'I'm a celebrity get me out of here'. Seeing once-famous people humiliate themselves just to be on TV is, in my opinion, excellent entertainment.

Similary 'documentaries' like the ones mentioned above, vary in quality. Some are opressive mindless drivel (or just porn). But some can be quite funny - 100 worst sexual accidents (or somesuch) was hilarious (the winner was a guy who poured cement down his... err... anus).

 

Quality, the same as beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

It is the same for anything. Music, sport, books, theatre, religion, political ideas... Some years ago I saw an ad for a show in the Edinburgh's Fringe Festival called "Puppetry of the Penis". No double meaning here, no word games. It meant exactly what the title described. Some of my friends went to watch that. Why? I do not know, and never asked. Some loved it, and found it amusing, and "a brilliant expression of modern art". Others thought it was the most moronic and distasteful of all things they had ever seen.

The thing is that, even if you may think that some things are idiotic, barbaric, or of bad taste, the reality is that they are being broadcasted because there is a (normally quite large) group of people to whom those programs appeal. The sad part is that, some of those who claim to dislike those programs will still watch them, to be able to complain about them.

And I ask to myself, is what we are offered now as entertaining any better than what history has offered so far?

 

At this point many of you out there are asking: If you hate television so much, why don’t you just stop watching it altogether? Because it is not it my fault that television is maddening, subhuman, and generally makes a mockery of all mankind has achieved during the previous two millennia? Don’t blame the fireman for the fire.

I actually find moments of television quite entertaining (Someone please bread-knife me for saying that). Take the Jerry Springer talk show. If the show is meant to portray the tragedy of life by pitting blistering idiot against blistering idiot, then it succeeds admirably, but I suspect Springer wants to make a stronger point. He must be trying to prove that his fetid pile of garbage of a show is what people actually want. If they want s**t, then give it to them! Why waste time on hard stuff like literature (yawn), art (elitist) or poetry (gay), when you can watch a polydactyl transvestite smash a chair in the face of the twice-divorced lesbian wife of a midget accountant? No wonder television has been called ‘a bleak wasteland’. People repeatedly dismiss television’s influence on their lives, but television is anything but irrelevant. So you ask if people are begging this hard to be exploited, then why not exploit them? Because we live in a hideously Individualistic, intellectually sterile, commercially driven world where a psychotic, lying drink-driver has become the most powerful man in the world while we whittle away what’s left of our brains thinking of mind numbing twaddle. If I don't marry will people think I'm gay? Does my bum look big in this? Will people think I'm upper middle class if I leave the 'The Economist' casually lying around? Are people happier than I am? Do they lead richer inner lives? Anxiety-ridden and insecure, we rely on our media to tell us what to do, what to eat, what to wear, and even how to have fun. The berks.

 

Every second show on NZ TV is something to do with doing up people's houses and/or gardens. I must be the only person left in the country who has not had his house redecorated on one or more of Ground Force, Changing Rooms, Mucking In, My House My Castle, DIY Rescue, House Doctor, or the ultimate DIY / reality show crossover: "Garden Wars".....

 

Hmmm, was that a joke, Baron "Tostoff"?