02.07.06
media: “must eat soul… must find blood soooooon”
reality tv… you know exactly what i’m talking about (let’s just cough and say big brother… ) has done many strange things to our more impressionable minds (e.g. MY MIND).
strange thing numero uno) = creating a fog of inverted narcissistic thinking (which is likely more of a time waster than anything i can think of off the top of my head), wherein you start to view yourself through a hidden camera, to see the tragi-comedy-drama-documentary of your own life.
but i wonder how bad it is to up self-consciousness in general: it has both benefits and negatives (you might do well to insert the motherly-yet-patronizing slightly nasal voice of your third grade teacher here).
me? i’d go with the idea that self-consciousness is like ohhh… everything i can think of: don’t take it to extremes on either end of the spectrum– there is a natural balance between the animal and the hamlet in us.
strange thing numero duo) no matter how banal the subject matter (family guy episode pops into my head with peter talking about the hole in his underwear), it is– in the viewing of these human moments of everyday life, the actions and things become imparted with meaning which many of us might never have experienced prior to that viewing.
although in a darker light, one might say we’re on a fast track to information overload– which could theoretically result in the spontaneous heart attacks or just general weary-to-the-point-of-nihilistic thinking that so many of us find ourselves engaging in later in life.
point being: the new level of refined control maintained within the television-as-a-warped-mirror phenomenon (shall we say taawp instead?) — could provide many powerful messages which a) fuck things up worse by perpetuating negative decisions and life-habits (for any number of reason), b) dumb us down to a silent passive consumer, and c) teach us hope, kindness, the value of critical thinking, hard work, patience, and all those other obviously useful values to the human race.
sometimes i think we’ve managed a and b quite splendidly, and sometimes i feel the internet is the only thing fighting against it.
strange thing numero tres: the uncomfortable learning of bullshit values about what it means to be a woman– we definitely need to positively and creatively subvert a good deal of (very male-oriented) attention being paid to the sexual appearance of female (which in and of itself is fun, fine, and fantastic, but it receives inordinate amounts of emphasis as a valued “character trait” in television).
i’m not going to get out all my feminist artillery here, but i’d just like to say: the more women directing films, running television companies, and writing documentaries, the better.
we need many eyes to see the whole elephant (”behind the scenes with hidden cameras!”)…
not just six blind men, but six blind women too… maybe a few chimps?
oh hell,
yes, i’m left and i can’t help it– i don’t want to be left, but i’m a woman, how can i ever be right in a man’s world?? eh?
strange thing numero quatro) this increased t.v. induced self-consciousness mayn’t be all bad after all auntie mabel. truly. to quickly rattle off this fun fact: in a psychology study (source long-forgotten) people who took a test with a mirror at their desk were less likely to cheat (even with an easy option to cheat available), than the control group who did not have a mirror in front of them.
in a sense, self-consciousness is the ultimate indulgence of a mammal that has managed to secure its safety in a dangerous world via it’s cunning and adaptations to the threats that surround it. therefore, the more self-conscious you are the more human you are…
in the same vein, some might argue that depression is not a disorder, but rather a reflection of self-awareness that is not supported by modern life (which requires a rather high-paced sense of time and inordinate amounts of confidence).
then again, there’s positive self-consciousness (where you’re in more or less in control of your thought patterns surrounding the self-awareness you experience) and there’s negative self-consciousness (where negative thoughts repeat themselves to a debilitating level rendering the person socially awkward and relatively miserable– especially when around others).
so, if the media can teach positive self-consciousness, or at least not continually revel in the emotional tragedy of depression (glamorizing the victim state if you will)… which in reality is no more behaviorally glamorous than a small child sulking– although it can indeed be tragic…we might actually have something good to say about television.
on some level, i’m glad when directors are bleeding hearts with a personal message that reflects a level of personal pain… so long as they’re not filling our brains with formulaic soul-less bullshit that offers only vague sugary quick fix solutions to the plots.
as it is i’m just enjoying the internet as it soothes my jangled need to know, feeds my ego via blogging, and allows me to somehow send out my human feelers into the portal of other humans minds and connect.
it’s insane and brilliant and i’m excited for the future.
sure, there are wee bits of trepidation floating around in my over-stimulated brain.
i’m only mammal after all and change = volatile and volatile = potentially negative consequences outside of my control, but mostly, i’m just hopeful and curious.