Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!tikal!sigma!bill
From: bill@sigma.UUCP (William Swan)
Newsgroups: sci.psychology
Subject: Re: Living in the 20th C
Message-ID: <1527@sigma.UUCP>
Date: 4 Mar 88 19:30:01 GMT
References: <1880@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> <1887@physics.UUCP>
Reply-To: bill@sigma.UUCP (William Swan)
Organization: Summation Inc, Kirkland WA
Lines: 43

In article <1887@physics.UUCP> greg@physics.UUCP (Greg Tusar) writes:
>I too have noticed quite the same phenomena. Much to my own distress, I find
>that I would rather watch the news on TV than actually sit down and read the
>paper. People tend to look for the more 'accessible', for lack of a better
>work, way of obtaining information. It is yet another indication of the 
>intellectual and cultural decline of America - this kind of fast food 
>approach to everything...

I seem to have come in on the middle of this.. but I don't think it's as
bad as Greg paints it.

One of the best things commercial television is doing for us is increasing
the number (I think) and sheer noise level (I am certain) of their ads.
For me, at least, the level has risen to the point where I will *not* turn
the tube on unless I have verified that there is a program I might want to
watch. The barrage of ads, and the inanity of TV reporters has driven me
away from TV news (how many times have you watched the banter between
anchors before and especially after "news" reports? Aren't they edifying?).

Since learning to read I've always read (at least part) of the newspapers,
but it was only when TV rose above my pain threshold that I started taking
a look at what I was getting from the two media. While it's true that the
paper has *never* offered anything as sensational as the live coverage of
the last stand of the Symbionese Liberation Army, the paper offers *much*
more information, on many more topics, without time out for advertising
for products I am completely indifferent to, than does the horned box.

I suspect that I am not alone in this. Those who want more comprehensive
information will find it, whether by papers, or magazines, or journals,
etc. Those who don't really care (and who in pre-TV days either listened
to radio news broadcasts or ignored the news completely) will continue
watching it.

If this country is in such an intellectual and cultural decline, when
were "the good old days", and how were they better?


-- 
William Swan  {ihnp4,decvax,allegra,...}!uw-beaver!tikal!sigma!bill
  "Once upon a time they burned witches. Not many, just one here and one 
   there, and it went on for a very, very long time.  Then one day they 
   started burning them right and left and then it was not very long at
   all before they quit burning them altogether."