Do you think television, to a large extent, controls the masses and shapes our thinking and beliefs and 'occupies' us so we are too apathetic and cultivated to ever think outside the box?

[Overmydeadbody]

Because I do, and it is begining to bug me how controlling television can be on someone who watches a lot of it.

It shapes so much of our thinking and force feeds us images of the ideal way to live every damn aspect of our lives.

Sometimes I wonder what we, as a civilisation, would be like without the cultivating medium of television.

nope

Dunno- is there anything on telly about this?

I hardly watch tv - it's so shite these days.
But I probably agree with you.

If you do't like telly, don't watch telly. Tis v.simple.

Look what telly's done to me. I can't spell the word "don't" properly...

I don't have a tv, so don't watch it, but it is still controlling the masses isn't it?

it is a very very clever way of controlling the masses isn't it? like endlessly distracting toddlers so they don't get into mischief, it nedlessly distracts a nation so that they do nothing to change the world they live in.

oh yes, is mass pulp braindead wank - its like the sun or mirror newspaper ....with moving pictures.

i think programmes like jeremy kyle can reinforce the normality of a culture in society - that shouldn't be normalised!

i don't have a telly - i watch sophisticated programmes on you tube ( like x factor)

Who are 'the masses'? Lots of people like you and I? Or is everyone else an idiot?

Yes and no - if like me some of you can remember the days when we only had 3 channels then it most certainly did shape our way of thinking. Millions of us watching epsiodes of Dallas, Corrie and TOTP it was a talking point at school, work and even the bus stop.
But now we have cable we can choose to flick through the dross and maybe choose a gem of a programme to shape us.

I'm definitely in The Masses, I think.

Yes telly is all rubbish. All those David Attenborough docs, Jane Austen stuff and The Apprentice. They really are dross.

Wilfself everyone, that's what I meanby the masses, you and me, tom dick ad=nd harry, your granny, Aunty jean, the kids in the coucil estate, the Cambridge professors, the hoora henrys....

It's more the adverts and the imagery in them that I find a bit disturbing, shaping our images of every bloody aspect of our lives

I suppose you lot are all too brainwashed to get what I'm saying

Ah, the wisdom of the disposable heroes of hiphoprisy. Television, the drug of the nation.

But in terms of limiting thought, I think perhaps the tabloids are more insidious as TV is mostly saying nothing at all rather than whipping up hysteria a la daily mail.

Hasn't Britain always been a bit apathetic as regards changing the world, even before TV? We never even had a proper revolution.

Oh, I see, you're talking about advertising. Then I completely agree. But it isn't specifically a TV issue then, is it?

but it's the saying nothing at all that keeps us apathetic don't you think?

It's the bloody adverts, not really the programmes, that just mainstream everything.

If people are busy watching 4 hrs of tv a night they aren't really going to be busy doing anythin else are they? It keeps everyone out of the way.

No, it's not specifically a tv issue, but tv is the only medium that delivers so much imagery through advertising every single day to masses of people, shaping all of their minds for years and years and years...

It is just so dull and controlling

it doesn't so much limit thought as limit time to do anything about that thought

There are lots of ads on MN too. You shouldn't be on here it might control you too much..

I wonder what our lives would be like without the cultivating influence of mumsnet.

It is a very clever way of distracting parents and letting them feel like they are engaging with the world without them actually changing anything.

Okay so tongue in cheek there. But. TV is a tool, it isn't the medium that is the problem it is those who control it, or at least some of it.

Yes a there's is propaganda, but there is also some decent stuff peppered in there too. Without television (or internet or radio or newspapers) the world would be very big and difficult to communicate with and find out anything about the situations of fellow human beings.

It is about being a discerning user who is aware of the motivations behind things.

Before television there were still plenty of apathetic or disillusioned people who didn't or felt they couldn't change the world.

I agree. There's a study iirc that shows how happiness declines on first introducing a population to television.

I think:

lots and lots of the programmes are unadulterated shite (eg Big Brother)

There's lots of normalisation of violence, bad behaviour, casual horrid stuff (eg Eastenders) which children are v often exposed to.

Advertising only works if it makes people dissatisfied because only people who are told they need something, eg hair conditioner to make them more attractive, will buy stuff and advertising is about persuading people to buy stuff. Or to switch the type of stuff they buy

News is depressing, incredibly so. I know it's life but it is still depressing and although I want to know (more or less) what's going on in the world, the detail contained in tv news is too much for me - I don't need to see pictures of children dying to know that war is hideous

There is the odd nugget of great stuff: comedy like The Office, satire like Brass Eye (I know I'm going back a bit, just off the top of my head), decent news coverage like The Today programme (ok, that's Radio 4 but it's BBC so the licence fee contributes), drama like Life on Mars and other stuff but on the whole I'd say an awful lot of what's on tv is dross and we'd all be better off without it.

no i think MN is the opiate of many.creating diversions by rehashing the same ole arguments, creating discord were none need exist

whereas tv has given us such gems as diet on the dance floor and lorraine kelly

edifying and illuminating for all

At least its a fairly heterogeneous medium.
Theres a lot of dross but theres really good
stuff too.

I think it was a lot worse in times past when you could have written the original post but in place of TV it would be 'The Church'.

Obviously, the only thing I've watched recently is Dawkins on Darwin

I don't watch that much tv it has to be said, probably because I think so much of it is shite. I do come here but the difference is:

(there are HUGE differences between mn and tv, can't believe anyone's trying to equate the two tbh)

Mumsnet is interactive, there are real people typing the words and you can react to what they're saying. You can choose to be involved as little or as much as you like

There is varied and intelligent debate on mumsnet

I agree, telly DOES keep lots of people in a kind of trance like state where they're not DOING anything or TALKING to anyone or THINKING, they're just sitting and being talked at or preached at, people watching tv are passive recipients, mostly.

Honestly, go to ex MILS and their MASSIVE tv is NEVER off. People don't talk to each other, a kind of lethargy settles on the room and if you stay there long enough you give in to it to and just exist in a vegetative state on their sofa.

ok, slur is right, it's not the medium that's the problem, but the people behind it. I do, hand on heart, think it is used as a means of controlling the population, to a greater or lesser degree, and conditioning us.

The adverts on MN are pretty easy to ignore, the adverts on tv are very in your face and mesmerising.

Television does cultivate us, whatever anyone argues, it does. Anything that we spent that much time doing would shape and control our thinking and beliefs, but instead of everyone having a variety or different things shaping their beliefs and views, almost the entire population just has television doing it, so everyone is getting the same thing, there is so little variety anymore.