TL;DR Social media is killing socializing. The media doesn't care about damage, only dollars. Completely anecdotal, but I've not watched TV nor been on Facebook or similar sites for years and I've found my overall confidence in other people to be improved. Sure, lots of people are idiots, but they're not necessarily malicious idiots. Media likes to sell what keeps people watching. Typically, that's going to be the most exciting, most perfect, most fucked up, or easiest thing. Take My 600-pound Life or 18 Kids and Diddling or The Bachelor or Twilight. Yeah, why wouldn't you, the most uninteresting person in the world, cause a feud to rival Menelaus vs Paris? To be fair, I have no clue about anything Twilight (nor do I care to learn) except commercials and very basic things people have said on the internet, but you get the idea. I think my beef is more with media selling unrealistic images of people and relationships, more than the stupid people that buy into them and are deluded into thinking that they have some basis in reality. Though, I guess they couldn't sell it if people didn't watch it. It's the easy way out, and we all would love to have the easy way. The difference is that some people can see through the bullshit and have a tougher but more rewarding road ahead. Our hypothetical Disney Princess wannabe is going to fall for "Mr. Perfect" and end up in some 50 Shades of Grey shit and/or in little pieces in someone's freezer. Hollywood and the media can do good things, like bringing to light social issues and "normalizing" lifestyles and ideologies that people may find taboo, but lately it seems that there's an ongoing campaign to create deluded little monsters who can't interface on more than a superficial level with other human beings. One last interesting aspect that I just thought about, which is again, a totally off-the-wall thought, is how we're treating kids these days as all "winners." Everyone's a winner. First place? Last place? Fuck it. You both win. Have a trophy and a some blinders so you don't have to face the fact that someone did better than you. Oh, you kicked a ball? Trophy. Ribbon. You're amazing. It really degrades actual accomplishment by reinforcing to children that no matter what, they'll succeed. You end up devaluing the effort that the first place person put in and you're encouraging the last place person to never make any more effort. In reality, nobody is a winner. First place feels like all that effort is going to get them the same result as barely-has-a-pulse in the corner and last place sees that they can jack around and still "accomplish" just as much as the hard worker. Takes off tinfoil hat.
I watch a few dozen hours of TV a year, mostly boxing or kid stuff with my 4 year old. I have a twitter account which I mostly enjoy, I follow a few journalist and NGO's and several writers, it isn't at all depraved. Other than that, no social media besides Yik Yak which in my neighborhood isn't at all tawdry or racist mostly a community bulletin board. The longer I'm away from TV and social media the more undesirable it becomes. Stop watching TV for a few months and advertising becomes almost unbearable. We've all acclimated ourselves to being constantly manipulated by forces that don't have our best interest in mind. Getting out the manipulation loop of television and insincere social media done nothing but make me more relaxed and happier.
Maybe once a month someone quotes a commercial or says "have you seen 'x' commercial," to me. "I don't have cable," has been my reply for like the last 6-8 years. _uck commercials. I don't miss a thing.
Yeah, I think we have cable for the roommates and John Oliver, but we're kind of a online streaming kind of couple. House is amazing.
It's funny how that works, right?And after being cut off from it, weirdly --I just got on with normal life. That is, instead of living in dissatisfaction that reality doesn't match reality television, I just concentrated on living a better life. And it worked!
I'm kind of with you here. I'm not so much into social media and such, but every time I hear anything/read anything about it, it seems pretty terrible, and seems to be depersonalizing the world. Which is funny because it's supposed to connect people. This part makes me happy because I feel exactly the same way, and I feel people that actually think/practice this are getting more and more rare.The longer I'm away from TV and social media the more undesirable it becomes. Stop watching TV for a few months and advertising becomes almost unbearable. We've all acclimated ourselves to being constantly manipulated by forces that don't have our best interest in mind.
Excellent comment as a whole, the only thing I kind of have a qualms with is this one because stupid can't help being stupid. In other words, being smart and being able to take advantage of someone(media), doesn't really make it ok to do it. As the higher intelligence, you should know better, and also realize you can probably benefit more by trying to educate rather than brainwash. When did the good of the whole stop mattering? Maybe when philosophers stopped being regarded as aristocrats?I think my beef is more with media selling unrealistic images of people and relationships, more than the stupid people that buy into them and are deluded into thinking that they have some basis in reality.