Tivo... or however you spell it

The world as we know it has become obsessed with a tiny little box underneath our televisions. Other than myself, I have come to realize that everyone owns a Tivo or DVR or something else of the sort. Apparently one cannot live without it. Who needs commercials anymore? Who actually goes out of their way to watch a program they want to? No one does that anymore. That is so last decade. Why watch commercials when television can now work around your schedule instead of the other way around. Yes, now everyone can watch the new episode of Gossip Girl two days after it airs. Heaven forbid that we miss our precious episodes of Gossip Girl! I remember the good old days when everyone would be forced to sit through the commercials and actually remember when a television show was going to be on. Now we just talk to our Tivo about it, and he fixes it all up for us. Forget the days of taping a show you wanted to watch. You can now have a library of television shows at your fingertip. This is all well and good, but how lazy and impatient are we getting? Yes, I hate commercials, but i tolerate them. Now we don't have to sit through two minutes of it all, we can just fast forward. It's quite pathetic when you really think about it. Our lives are so precious that we are not going to spend a couple minutes watching something that we don't want to watch. I can honestly say that I am doing just fine without a Tivo. I think I'll survive watching a few commercials or missing a show that I like.

bhutan

Well today we talked about something that in my opinion was quite depressing. I found out that every country in the world now has had the influence of television. Bhutan, the last country to receive it, has already had its culture and people manipulated by television although it only happened less than a decade ago. Sometimes I have wondered what it would be like to live without the influence of television and the media in my daily life. It seems now that that is quite impossible as there is nowhere in this world that I can go to and avoid television completely. Even this secluded country in the Himalayas now has children idolizing wrestling stars and cartoon characters. The elders have cut down on their time usually spent on prayers and their religion and have instead occupied that time with watching television. The only hope that I had for this small country was that their vast population of monks, who are very important to their daily life and culture, would avoid this device and live a television free lifestyle. I was sad to find out that even they have been sucked into TV's tractor beam. They are spending less and less time doing what they have done for thousands of years because of its influence. Although it is their right to chose whether or not they can have the influence of this device, I just wish that one part of the world could avoid the addictive thing known as TV.

Wow, scary

So in class yesterday (Monday), we had a little iclicker quiz right? The results were quite scary. My side lost 5 to 3 which was really disappointing but it was the questions that we all got wrong that was even worse. Everyone, and I mean everyone, knew where Barack Obama was a senator of. But our side couldn't even get 70 percent of us to remember where John McCain was from! We also didn't know who represented Oregon in the Senate and we didn't know who any of the Justices were. We didn't even know the Chief Justice! Now can all of this be blamed on the media? Not entirely, although one can make the case that much of it is due to the media. Television and the internet let's us all know who the American Idol judges are and who wins and what company made Fergie's dress for the MTV music video awards, but how much do they reveal about our government? I bet there are many people in this country that can name ever American Idol winner so far but doesn't even know what a Supreme Court Justice is. CNN and Fox News talk enough about the Presidential Candidates (apparently not enough about McCain's background) but they really fail to update us all on what is going on in the Supreme Court and the Senate (which is pretty much nothing, but still) and even in our own state's government. It may not be the most exciting news ever but I still think that the media should be held accountable to inform us of all of the news that affects us, not just the controversial ones. Let's be fair and say that the schools need to inform us of who the Justices are and what Congress is responsible for, but I'll admit I have already forgotten a lot of that. I think it is really up to the media to keep us up to date on everything that affects us in our government.

More stuff on the media

I am fully prepared to receive the negative comments from Obama supporters. I realize that the majority of voting students on this campus are Obama fans. However, McCain supporters do exist! I am one of them. Now before you press the "back" button on your internet browser, I would like for at least some of you to hear things you may not like to hear. Yes, Fox News is biased. It's a well known fact and if I were to deny that I would just be ignorant and oblivious. CNN, however, is also biased. I know that many of you think its much more balanced than Fox but have you really ever taken a good look at both of them? Yes, CNN has speakers from both parties on many of their shows. But how much of a word to they get in? Fox has speakers from the Democratic side and they have their time on the air to preach the second coming of Jesus Christ better known as Senator Barack Obama. Although Fox News clearly represents the conservative side of the media, nearly every other program will voice their liberal side. Both the Daily Show and the Colbert Report are clearly McCain haters. Some may think that they just make fun of politics in general but the majority of the jokes are cracks at McCain or praise of Obama. And they both clearly fill their live audience with Democratic Obama fans. Now I call them fans not supporters because that's just what many of them are. Given, there are quite a few Obama supporters that actually have looked into his views and facts. Much of the population, however, fell in love with Obama because he is popular with the media and much of the younger voters. Just because it's "cool" to support Obama doesn't necessarily mean that you should. I would like to encourage some of the Obama shirt-wearers to actually look into the sides and values of both candidates or even third party candidates. Just because the media doesn't worship a candidate, does not mean that they should not be considered.

200 words on the media

The media on television today has become something with a purpose solely on grabbing the viewer's attention and being able to keep that attention long enough to convince them to refrain from touching their remote throughout the commercial break. This point is sad but true. Local news networks embellish the most insignificant events around the area just so that the viewer will be glued to their seat. Sadly, it works much of the time. They always leave you with a cliffhanger or a foreshadow to their next coverage. The nationwide broadcasting companies such as CNN or Fox news try to keep your attention by focusing on one point for hours at a time. If an interesting story comes up they cover that story until there is nothing left to say about it, and then they continue to talk about it more. They pick certain things such as the woman whose daughter was killed and went partying the next night. They will continue to cover this story over and over again praying for a development. Both CNN and Fox discuss the upcoming election to the point where i cannot take it anymore. I would like to hear about other things going on in the country, not about Obama's trip to Nowhere, Oklahoma where he accused McCain of not caring about the working class. And i honestly do not care about what type of hamburger Sarah Palin got on her visit to a local McDonald's. Overall, I just wish news programs would inform me of interesting happenings of the day and not beat those topics until they die slowly.