Are You A TV Addict?!
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The Scientific American recently published a study on the phenomenon of ‘tv addiction’ – which no doubt would apply to sadgeezers like ourselves. I provide a link below for the online version of the article.
[url=http://www.sciam.com/2002/0202issue/0202kubey.html]http://www.sciam.com/2002/0202issue/0202kubey.html[/url]I have to confess that someone with philosophical training like myself is deeply troubled by certain ontological committments ([b]what[/b] a study assumes to be relevant or adequate to the question of its own delimitations) and methodological approach ([b]how[/b] certain phenomena may be delimited according to its own committments).
Basically, I think the study reveals its own addictions – and is a crock of **** as a result.
[ 22-02-2002: Message edited by: bonnee ]
[img]images/smiles/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img] hi my name is Mary Beth and i am a TV addict! [img]images/smiles/icon_razz.gif[/img] [img]images/smiles/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img] [img]images/smiles/icon_razz.gif[/img]
i agree Bonnee. what a crock of BS!
i do literally watch 9 to 12 hours of TV a day. i don’t like going to movies, i would much rather rent one. i don’t go out to bars cause i spent 10 years off and on working in bars, and have done all the partying in bars that i want to! [img]images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img] i absolutely hate to go shopping. i know i must be the only woman in the world who hates shopping, but that is just me. i am not a religious person so church functions are out. reading, well i get my reading done in the bathroom. hehe LOL [img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] i enjoy watching tv!!!! pure and simple. i am a happy and well adjusted person as far as i am concerned. hubby and i are happy. i enjoy my part-time job and the people i work with. life is good. hubby likes to jokingly say that i am a very low maintenance wife. but it is true! want to know what i got for Valentines Day from hubby? 8 blank VCR tapes! i loved it!!!! he knows me so well! hehehe [img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] ok yes we don’t have alot of money to spend on extras, but he knew i was running out of tapes, (i am in the process of taping every ep of B5, i have 15 tapes so far, this is a mix of 8 hour and 6 hour tapes. also Andromeda and Lexx!) and he thoughtfully got me more of what i wanted truly instead of some flowers that would die! way to go off topic! hehe
i guess what i am trying to say is this, if someone wants to label me a TV addict, go ahead. it doesn’t faze me one bit. i do have a bit of advice for them. “people in glass houses should not be throwing rocks.” to use this articles definition of addict would leave a wide variety of things to be addicted to open for debate. ummm like maybe being a pompus twit who likes the sound of his/her own voice!
btw just how ironic was it that the article then goes into the computer and internet connection to addiction and this article is posted on the internet!!! [img]images/smiles/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]I’m surprised you were able to tear yourself away from the tv to read it Mary Beth [img]images/smiles/icon_razz.gif[/img]
and remember – the first step is admitting you have a problem. the second step is following its advice on how to beat your addiction – like taping your shows instead. [img]images/smiles/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]
What made you think of this, Bonnee? The recent episode of [i]Lexx[/i] where they lounge about in some house in Ohio, watching the “viewscreen”? (lol)
Here’s a theory that I came up with a while ago; it’s just a feeling I have. The television is the replacement for the hearth or the stone-age campfire. A place around which a household usually gathers.
However, sick obsession with video happens. But I don’t think it’s as rampant as alcoholism. I have heard a story about a local woman who was truly mad. She had at least half dozen televisions and VCRs. She felt compelled to videotape everything. The rooms of her house were completely filled with videotapes. Apparently, they “took her away” to get help. (No joke, it’s a true story.)
I actually stumbled across this article in my readings – not related to Lexx at all [img]images/smiles/icon_redface.gif[/img] You do raise an interesting point though – one i intend to develop elsewhere: namely, the relation between hunting and gathering. why is it, for example, that people gather around the telly to track down particular kinds of experiences to feed off? this so called study ignores the most addictive question of all – the fact that we are all producers and/or consumers of meaning. audiences ‘produce’ shows by virtue of their patronage and selections, and what individual consumers chose to select by way of their patronage requires us to specify the nature and extent of the addiction. this article is a joke because it presumes to raise the question of substance abuse, and reveals itself to be insubstantial.
Interesting article. I was more interested in the small bit about computer interactivity, though.
I don’t watch a lot of TV anymore, but I used to, so I guess you could say I had that addiction. Now I mostly only watch two or three favorite shows and ignore the rest. I know I have one of those addictive personalities, but my particular addictions seem to change over time. Right now, I spend more time on the computer than I do with the TV set.
Flamegrape has something with the hearth theory, IMO. It’s human nature to gather around the fire and socialize with our own when darkness falls. But in modern life, we spend most of our time interacting with people we don’t know well or don’t know at all. It’s comforting to come home and “be” with people we think we know because we’ve seen them week after week, or talked to them on the computer. We’ve shifted our “tribe” more or less to TV personalities and chat mates.
The T.V. in my dorm only gets 6 channels, so all I watch here is the news and [i]Doctor Who[/i]. When I’m at home every other weekend then I can watch all the cable shows I love like [i]Lexx[/i] and [i]Leave it to Beaver[/i].
[img]images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]
quote[quote] I’m surprised you were able to tear yourself away from the tv to read it Mary Beth [/quote] [img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]
i am watching TV at this very moment. my TV is about 5 feet in front of my computer desk [img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] yes i can do 2 things at once. [img]images/smiles/icon_razz.gif[/img] [img]images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img] LOLquote[quote] like taping your shows instead. [/quote]
i do tape my shows. i tape 5 hours of stuff while i am at work to watch later. and during primetime i tape another couple of hours of my favorite shows so hubby and me can watch the sitcoms and shows that we both like. this is our time together to wind down and relax. i watch my shows usually on the weekend when he is watching his classic movies, John Wayne movies, or war movies.
to sum it up [b]I LOVE TV[/b]!!!! i will stop watching TV when they pry the remote from my cold dead hand! [img]images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img] [img]images/smiles/icon_razz.gif[/img] [img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]I’ve heard it said that T.V and computer games can promote anti-social behaviour, and to a degree I guess it’s true. Although, I think most adults are less affected and they use television as a way to start a conversation, like we do here, or discussing sporting events. Children seem at the most risk, watching television seems to hamper certain learning skills, i.e how to communicate in the real world, and in some cases they are shut off from society.
You hear that some are influenced by T.V, again it could be attributed to how your childhood was shaped, you end depending on T.V as your portal to the outside.
But I think most people with a T.V have the same requirements as each other, I watch only things that interest me, so at best it’s about 2-3 hours viewing, and that’s on a good night.
But I would rather be sat in a front of a T.V with a nice cold beer than throwing my money down the drain getting rat-arsed down the local bar (though once in a while is good!!!), a lot of it is due to age or your circumstances. Like housewives, stuck at home all day, the only highlight is picking up the kids from school, and the only entertainment provided is boring daytime T.V…sounds like hell to me!!!
Squishy [img]images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img] [img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] [img]images/smiles/icon_razz.gif[/img]quote:
Originally posted by Squishy:
I’ve heard it said that T.V and computer games can promote anti-social behaviour, and to a degree I guess it’s true. Although, I think most adults are less affected and they use television as a way to start a conversation, like we do here, or discussing sporting events. Children seem at the most risk, watching television seems to hamper certain learning skills, i.e how to communicate in the real world, and in some cases they are shut off from society.
You hear that some are influenced by T.V, again it could be attributed to how your childhood was shaped, you end depending on T.V as your portal to the outside.
But I think most people with a T.V have the same requirements as each other, I watch only things that interest me, so at best it’s about 2-3 hours viewing, and that’s on a good night.
But I would rather be sat in a front of a T.V with a nice cold beer than throwing my money down the drain getting rat-arsed down the local bar (though once in a while is good!!!), a lot of it is due to age or your circumstances. Like housewives, stuck at home all day, the only highlight is picking up the kids from school, and the only entertainment provided is boring daytime T.V…sounds like hell to me!!!
Squishy [img]images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img] [img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] [img]images/smiles/icon_razz.gif[/img]
I agree. I like television and video games. I’m not one of those people who believes that all the violence in society is the result of [i]The Matrix[/i] and “Doom.” But television can have unhealthy effects on people, especially younger children. To many people, television is something to which they compare their lives, and develop their sense of what the real world is like (I think that’s true of everyone, to an extent). Television presents fictitious situations and norms that can be confused with reality. Actually I think it’s shows that are “mundane” and close to reality that cause the most trouble, rather than violent cop shows or that sort of thing.
Like I said, I’m not against entertainment, but people can become disconnected from reality.
quote:
Originally posted by DalekTek790:
I agree. I like television and video games. I’m not one of those people who believes that all the violence in society is the result of [i]The Matrix[/i] and “Doom.” But television can have unhealthy effects on people, especially younger children. To many people, television is something to which they compare their lives, and develop their sense of what the real world is like (I think that’s true of everyone, to an extent). Television presents fictitious situations and norms that can be confused with reality. Actually I think it’s shows that are “mundane” and close to reality that cause the most trouble, rather than violent cop shows or that sort of thing.
Like I said, I’m not against entertainment, but people can become disconnected from reality.
It’s difficult to say just what influence T.V can have on people, I think most people tend to remember positive aspects, like I always thought that Don Johnson was one well dressed geezer, and would love to dress like him.
But if something is glamourised, then it can be made to look cool, for instance, the hardman hero who always resorts to violence to solve his problems, well for most of us it’s taken lightly, but for some it could result in them emulating that hero.
For the best part we can distinguish between fiction and fact, and won’t follow the example set by a violent character.
But deep down we all admire the likes of Kai, but why?, he has no persona, all he knows is killing…but we admire him.
Maybe because in his world there are no consequences to suffer from his actions, maybe because the rugged looks and cold attitude still get’s him attention.
I think the more a programme attempts to dive into reality, the more dangerous the impression left on those susceptible to suggestion.
There is a very remote link between violence on-screen and the behaviour of some nutters out there, but T.V shouldn’t take the whole blame, as usually other circumstances have promoted the idea of violence, T.V is just a small part of that.
Squishy [img]images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img] [img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] [img]images/smiles/icon_razz.gif[/img]Then, of course Squish, being social can also lead to antisocial behaviour [img]images/smiles/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]
I could be wrong, but wasn’t ‘zoinks’ something Shaggy used to say in Scooby Doo?
If so then it’s an expression of surprise at a revelation or statement, i.e someone in Scooby Doo would say for instance ‘The place is haunted’, and Shaggy would come out with ‘Zoinks’!!!
Squishy [img]images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img] [img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] [img]images/smiles/icon_razz.gif[/img]
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