Television is a drug and America is
an addict. This medium is so enslaving because it presents to us a chance of
escapism: to do things we could never do in real life, with the freedom to make
mistakes so caustic that they would cause immediate destruction were we really
to go through with it. But yet, from inside a television no mistake can be made
that cannot be undone. As an American public, we are addicted to television
because of the inherent perfection with which it presents life. We can become
lost in the plot line and forget about the stressors and fears in our own
lives. For this very reason, we do not see people on TV watching TV. To see
that image, would be to wake up from our dream; it would make us all to aware
that what we are seeing is only an illusion, that these characters are not
really a part of our lives. Einrich is quite accurate in her denunciation of
American culture, the “television” has prayed upon our minds to create the
perfect formula for a nation of couch potatoes.
The idea that television has
transformed Americans, along with society, into couch potatoes, is one that is
all too apparent. In American today, the average person spends four hours per
day watching television. Not only has the screen time increased, but so to have
the secondary impacts of television: obesity, poor eating behaviors, and
anti-social behaviors. But these critiques of entertainment are not anything
particularly new; when books and novels were first circulated centuries ago,
they too were often denounced as corrupting hard work and morals. But
television has taken that formula of escapism to a whole new level. Unlike
books and movies, TV has constant access to us in our homes and gives such a
vivid and easy to understand story that we are capable of watching it for hours
on end.
The realization presented by Einrich
that people on television are never seen doing anything that resembles the
hours spent in front of the TV is one that is truly startling. The characters
instead seem to be doing activities that would be considered the most exciting
part of any person’s week, except they are lined up in hit after hit of
excitement. They present life in hyper-speed. The everyday life an average
person simply cannot compete with the thrilling lives of their favorite
characters. Therefore, it is often easier for us to become spectators, to watch
the hours of entertainment, rather than seek to find real-life connections;
which because they are real-life are
often not as fun and exciting as what we see on TV.
The assertions that Barbara Einrich
has presented are an ominous thought: that television has transformed the once
active and vigorous American lifestyle into little more than a catatonic state
of mindless entertainment consumption. But nonetheless, the thesis is quite
truthful. Television has made a product so successful that it has become an
addiction. It does this by showing an approximation of reality that is
impossible for a real person to achieve. It tricks people into forgetting that television
is not really a part of who they are, but is simply the made up stories of in a
fictional character’s life. This disillusionment is so malignant that it causes
us to forgo living our own lives to watch another’s.
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