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userid7
March 24th, 2009, 01:13 PM
I think I am putting this post in the right place, as I beileive tv is not
good for our mental health.
I think I can prove this to you, just don't watch it for 2 weeks to month,
and I think you will be surprised at the amount of B.S. that somehow
slipped right past you when you watch it again.
Television was seen as a perfect tool for propaganda, right from the start
by those who developed it, our generation has been put in front if it
by our parents, and so at an early age we just accept it, those who
were not conditioned early used to call it the idiot box or the boob tube,
and I think for a good reason.
Peace and Love,
DangerBird.

Edit :
OK, not a machine of total evil, though it may be rare, sometimes there is something worthwhile on it.

Narnia
March 24th, 2009, 01:43 PM
Yes, I think your post is in the right spot DB .... it is about mental health and healing wisdom! :)

Yes, I find the whole concept of the 'TV Baby Generation' to be really concerning for the future and for the fate of the planet and for ourselves for that matter ..... :Eeksign:

Plopping a kid infront of a TV cannot and does not raise a proper minded human being especially if the parent is not conscious of what the kid is viewing and how much time is spent of the 'tube' and by doing so parents are severely neglecting their duties and avoiding their kid all together ..... and that is just bad/wrong ..... in my humble opinion.



I do admit to watching TV as a kid, but I watched almost everything on PBS (Public Broadcasting System) or from the BBC; everything from Nature to Nova, from Mystery to "Where in the world is Cameron SanDiego?" from Sesame Street to Minster Rogers (which by the way was filmed in a studio just a few blocks from where I lived) ....

Anyway, when it comes to watching and or viewing TV, especially today, one really needs to be hyper aware and conscientious of what is real and what is pure BS and remember to always think for yourself ....

Well, I am most happy to report we don't have TV/Cable! I haven't watched TV in years!

SoulChild
March 24th, 2009, 02:38 PM
Yes, and from what I know about American programs, yes, they can certainly be poisonous. I do not however wish to ban tv. Just the advertisings.....LOL Really, there are many educational programs on tv. I actually appreciate them, because most of the time they have to give both sides of the story (the believers, and the skeptics). It is the same though for books...you really need to read into who is producing the book/film and know their point of view, cause the program may have the producers view incorporated in the program either on purpose or by accident. Guidance is the key....even with books and tv! Many people jump into a book, or a program and immediately become influenced...and remember, we all have our individual point of view...so perception is also important. What I get out of something....may not be the same thing the next person gets from it. I take the good from TV. Such as fitness programs and documentaries...and comedy to uplift my mood, and romance/drama/action...to feed my emotions accordingly. Again, my biggest issue with tv is advertising...especially in America. it's just stupid most of the time. There is one commercial now, where the people continually state www.triplescore.com, then you look at the bottom of the tv, and it reads www.triplescore86.com. Then most commercials are corney but catchy songs and don't get me started with the prescription drug commercials!....LOL Where they people are walking in a grass field and everything is fine...and then some bumble bee tell you about the side effects thats worse then what the medicin is for!...LOL it just tickles me to death!....LOL and then the bumble bee states the side effects fast and at the end the actor will say "ask your doctor"...but, no, thats not what we go to the doctor for....we want the doctor to tell us what we need....but, the best bet, is to practice preventive health measures...and hope that the American doctors diagnose correctly. (sorry if i went off topic)

userid7
March 25th, 2009, 04:51 AM
Whenever I bring up to someone that I don't watch TV, they get confused
as all hell, which is why I posted the 2 weeks - month challenge,
I have a had alot of roomates, and they said they actually felt better
with no TV ,(I didn't allow them), and they gained at least some
insight in all this,
DangerBird.

Logio
March 28th, 2009, 01:24 AM
http://fortuneapple20.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/apple-tv-take-2.png

"Do you know we are ruled by T.V.?"

-Jim Morrison

Shalott
March 31st, 2009, 07:02 PM
Whenever I bring up to someone that I don't watch TV, they get confused
as all hell, which is why I posted the 2 weeks - month challenge,
I have a had alot of roomates, and they said they actually felt better
with no TV ,(I didn't allow them), and they gained at least some
insight in all this,
DangerBird.

I rarely watch TV myself, but I think it's because Closed Captioning was not considered "Standard Options" on televisions back in the dark ages when I grew up. So I just got used to not watching Television (or Telly, for my British chums) and the habit stuck with me. Besides, I read somewhere that the lack of brain stimulation from watching TV causes brain cells to die. I will watch CSI episodes and NCIS with my Father, but that's pretty much it. I spend more time on the computer or doing my knitting.

God's Toy
April 1st, 2009, 01:51 PM
I think it's not always a bad thing, it's a powerful tool and if used right could change the world for the better... To see the 'good' I suppose you just have to learn how to filter out the trash and propaganda, see the wood for the trees and understand whats really going on.

BlueStar
April 1st, 2009, 02:54 PM
Oooh love this discussion. I actually really relate to what Dangerbird is saying. I don't think TV is a bad thing per se and I although I don't watch huge amounts of it I have a shortlist of favourite programmes which I like to watch.

The danger I think is that TV can - and frequently is - very misused. If I can coin a phrase from Marx, Tv has become an 'opium for the masses' and many people are oblivious to the fact that TV is used almost like a drug....they just plonk themselves down in front of it and completely zone out, becoming passive witnesses to whatever happens to be on. People can spend entire evenings, sometimes even whole days just zoning out like mind-controlled zombies.

This is alarming i itself, but what I find especially scary is the CONTENT of much of what is put on TV. In short, whereas I like TV to make me feel good and uplifted, the vast majority of television these days seems designed to have the opposite effect - its designed to make you feel bad, and seemingly the worse the better. Aside from occasional escapist fare and silly sitcoms, there seems to be a deliberate effort on the part of the TV makers to make everything as dark, bleak, harrowing and hard-hitting as possible. Dramas are getting ever more pitch black, violent and supposedly more gritty and 'realistic'. Even documentaries invariably seem to be on depressing and tragic events or circumstances. There's very little (at least on UK television - which is all I can really talk about really!) to make you feel uplifted or inspired or to raise your energy or mood. I don't get it....and I don't get why people seem to lap it up. Is it that there's no demand for feel-good or inspiring fare or is it just deemed by the programme makers that the more grim and violent something is the higher the ratings are?

BlueStar
April 1st, 2009, 02:56 PM
(I wrote a huge long post and went waaay over my wordcount! Here's more, my rant isn't finished yet :))


And when you consider there's the constant barrage of news on top of that....news is of course a different matter but all I'll say is that far from being an impartial window to the world, news programs and news gathering is very much a constructed affair: news is gathered and presented according to certain criteria to determine if it's newsworthy, one of the prime criteria being the level of negativity. I don't deny there are many dreadful things happen in the world, clearly there are: but people who base their worldview on simply watching the news have a very warped perspective: for every dreadful act that is perpetrated in the world, there are a million good ones everyday - but those aren't deemed newsworthy.


Long story short: people are sitting like zombies in front of their televisions soaking this negativity up, buying into a very warped and horrendously negative worldview that is being drip-fed to them by negative programme content. Many people (not everything, thankfully!) don't appear to be aware of this insidious social conditioning and don't have the awareness with which to question this worldview.

I see it in all aspects of the media. An extremely negative, distorted worldview is being indoctrinated into people...the result is they become very negative, pessimistic, defeated, apathetic people, always complaining, always aggrieved and completely oblivious to the joys in life. They're also extremely disempowered and seem to develop an addiction to negativity.

BlueStar
April 1st, 2009, 02:58 PM
This kind of social conditioning scares me. I see the effect it has on people and it's not pleasant.

Like I said, there are obvious exceptions and maybe I've pushed my point a bit much, I don't know. But if the world is to change it's only going to come about by a change in consciousness. Currently the level of consciousness you see depicted in the average TV show is not particularly high: you just need to flick through channels here and there's a sad proliferation of conflict, hate, violence and cruelty. Like anything, the medium of television itself is neutral; it's neither good nor bad, it is how it is used that determines whether it has a good or bad effect. Imagine how people's consciousness would be elevated if there were more inspiring, encouraging, empowering and positive programmes on TV? I know there are some shows like that scattered about, but not nearly enough....

We can but wish.

(Sorry for that massive long post.....I had to get it out my system. The forum evidently isn't designed for an uber long lucid exposition rant :laugh:)

Rana
April 3rd, 2009, 10:02 AM
i like watching T.V at times it allows me to do a few things to zone out watching either something very inspiring about a people or nature ..or something totally meant for fun ..usually meaningless crap that makes me feel good.. to be informed about current world issues directly by seeing a journalist whos talent happens to be reporting about reality in other countries .i think T.V protects many people in societies because the perpetrators cant hide. im an adult and i can make a concious choice as to what i watch and when ..as parents we dont get to go to the movies much so we rely on DVDs and t.v to enjoy all the fun films. I am pretty strict about the amount of TV and what the kids watch ..and thats the way it is for me.. but i think if your well rounded you wont be as affected by TV as some ..:2cool:Laie_100: