I am sitting in ninth period digital graphics(if you haven't already figured out that I am indeed a highs chool student, and hell bent on becoming a bit more honest) and taking part in thirty second video clips being played on the computer next to me. They are brainless pieces of humor, visions of nonsense that make you question exactly why you're laughing...If you laugh at all. When bouncing smiley faces saying "We're circles..." over and over again flashed onto the screen and the collective audience let out a hardy har, I had to wonder:
Is the media geared toward being less intelligent for wider markets....Or possibly brainwashing? If pop culture degenerates continually, won't those who consume it follow the trend? Is the youtube slough of "viral videos" turning millions of brains into mush?
Yes, I am sitting at a computer on a blog, and thus a partial black kettle to this argument; but think about hours spent on myspace that could be filled turning the pages of a good book. I don't have a myspace, persionally, and I have plenty of intelligent friends who do; but I fail to see the point. The same with meaningless sensationalist tv, there is no social or artistic value to two men trying to cause as much physical pain to the other by ramming into each other with shopping carts (Jackass allusion, folks).
Whatever happened to consuming for self-improvement?!
Where is the progress in the destruction of human intellect, in the degeneration of Brittney Spears into a blithering mental patient?
I realize I have asked many questions and offered little answers...I realize that I am an indie-culture kid who loves her cell phone. I also love Jane Austen...Can't the two coexist, or was J.K. Rowling right in her assertion from the bestselling Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, "Neither can live while the other survives."
ok, but some people (aka me) have a myspace, and spend a good amount of time on it (it's a good way to have fun keeping in touch with friends that live far away when your too poor to visit) and watch tv and movies (that's also caled having fun with friends) and still manage to expand their horizon, as the saying goes. I am graduating two years early, read five or six books a week, and have a 3.8 GPA. honestly, i think you need to stop thinking about stereotypes, and see thebig picture. But, if you are from California, I forgive you, because I am from Montana, and we don't just watch stuff like jackass, we actually do the stunts, and live, and have fun doing it.
For telling me to look at a bigger picture, you sure did point out Californians fast...What's the biggie with Cali?
The Idiot's Guide to Achieving Nirvana: sold in a consumerist metropolis near you.
~Brooke
On the one hand, I understand what you are saying, there are some videos that are just plain stupid. But, I must admit, I am quite the YouTube addict. Not all popular video are stupid, there are some that are genuinly smart comedy, some that are just remarkable made for an average person, a yeah, some are just stupid, but is there anything wrong with giving your mind a break and laughing at something completely silly?
Nothing wrong in giving the mind a break. Hell, you can only take so much Sartre! I was gearing my thoughts more toward the possibility that the excess of the mindless "fun" could possibly be detrimental...But then, they say even sugar can give you cancer, no?
The Idiot's Guide to Achieving Nirvana: sold in a consumerist metropolis near you.
~Brooke
Looking at the entertainment today I really wonder what is happening. Smart humor lasts for a little while, while potty humor runs for a long time. The two can coexist to a point. Some happen to take it way to far and forget about the other things in life.