thejeremyshow wrote:

Reality television has little to do with anything. It is just another form of entertainment. Complaining about reality shows like “Project Runway” or “The Apprentice” as the cause of society’s problems is just like those old men in black and white news clips saying rock and roll was the devil’s work. These shows are silly entertainment (like most of television) and they have been around forever- “Queen for a Day,” “The Miss America Pageant,” “Star Search,” etc. We all watch them or have watched them, saying how much we hate them as our eyes are glued to the screen. Television appeals to our need for frivolous escapism, it always has- “I Dream of Jeannie,” “Mr Ed.” “My Mother the Car”- shows that we now hail as artifacts from a simpler time, brilliant gems.

I was just thinking about how at least from what I’ve seen, there doesn’t seem to be any sort of youth movement or culture at all. Maybe I just don’t see it because I’m not in high school (at least not physically, my behavior and lifestyle might lead some to believe otherwise).

When I was in high school there were many groups — preppies, hippies, ravers, stoners, etc. Each of these groups had their corresponding “beliefs” and concerns. As annoying as they all were, these groups were all thinking about life and society and trying to take little stabs at changing the world into what they wanted it to be.

Now all of that energy is expressed into computers and cell phones and transferred into binary code- making it essentially useless. This isn’t just for “youth”, it applies to all of us.

We aren’t anymore “lazy” than we were before the internet. We are just using a different means for expression of our thoughts. Instead of getting together physically, we are spending time writing comments on livejournals and blogs -virtual clubs.

I don’t think we are ill-informed. In fact, I think we are over-informed. We are overwhelmed with information, fragments of truths and lies. Like seeing a “photoshopped” picture of Britney Spears’ head pasted onto a naked body – we don’t know what to believe. Was she really naked or did someone do that with their computer to trick us? This is the same with the news. What is real and what isn’t? It becomes so confusing that we lose patience.

Then any response to information, like this post, ends up being scattered into the vacuum of the internet, doing little or nothing to change anything. When we do get passionate enough about a piece of information we read on the internet, we send an email forward or post to a forum or write in our blog and then go get a latte at Starbucks (or whatever coffee shop we believe is the least oppressive to the environment and it’s employees), job done.

Wouldn’t it be great if there were some way to make digital expression more effective? Wouldn’t it be great if we could actually change things with all the voices that are coming from the internet? If we could vote online? If our emails to senators and government weren’t just treated as spam? We aren’t going to change the way we do business. We are now digital people.