(289~291) I agree with Johnson’s claim of, Sleeper Curve makes the viewers improve so they Liu 2 can and will want to watch more TV shows. However, watching TV have more factors that make you more stupid than make you smarter. This skill ends up letting people watch more and more TVs, which already is a bad thing, and they become more stupid. First of all, TV shows’ content also is a great factor of being smart which Johnson never talks about. In “Watching TV Makes You Smarter” when he talked about the show 24, he ignored the content of the show like the torture scenes, and go straight to the Sleeper Curve.
He believed that it hindered students abilities to perform well in the classroom, he argued that traditional education systems thrive on print technology. McLuhan also looked at media as hot and cool media. Cool media was those that allowed high levels of participation and involvement. Hot media were those that higher information and consequently did not involve the recipient of the message as intensely. Some examples of cool media would be television and the fact that people could watch the Vietnam War on the television, or the bombings of Iraq, or the twin towers getting blown up by planes and the tumbling to ground.
Even television tried to clean up the image of Rock-n-Roll with shows like American Bandstand, hosted be Dick Clark. He promoted good, clean fun for teens by having artist perform songs that parents would approve of. He also made strict guidelines for dress codes for the teens on his show as wells as how they danced. There were even artist, such as Pat Boone, who took pride in setting a good example for teenagers. He even wrote a book to encourage teens to do the right things by their parents, and also practice abstinence until marriage.
However, this meant that the public could have found the constant propaganda boring so might not listen to it as much. This was easily dealt with by putting light hearted entertainment (obviously still controlled by the government) on the radio and people would still listen to the propaganda as it was their only source of entertainment. By doing this, it made radio incredibly more effective because it meant that Nazi Propaganda could be delivered subconsciously to the German public through the entertainment. On the other hand, many people could argue that newspapers were the better form of mass indoctrination because of the creation of
Oh Ken Kesey, You’re Cuckoo. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, with its meaningful message of individualism, was an extremely influential novel during the 1960's. In addition, its author, Ken Kesey, played a significant role in the development of the counterculture of the 60's; this included all individuals who did not conform to society's standards, experimented in drugs, and just lived their lives in an unconventional manner. An issue of Time Magazine during this decade recalled Ken Kesey’s novel to be, “A roar of protest against middle brow society’s rules and the invisible rulers who enforce them.” (Lehmann-Haup) This protest would be the main mind set of the upcoming 1970s generation in America. Once an LSD consumer, Ken Kesey, defines the importance of freedom throughout his world renowned Post-Modern novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
When there were automatic looms, the mind was like an automatic loom; and, since young people in the loom period liked novels, it was the cheap novel that was degrading our minds. When there were telephone exchanges, the mind was like a telephone exchange, and, in the same period, since the nickelodeon reigned, moving pictures were making us dumb. When mainframe computers arrived and television was what kids liked, the mind was like a mainframe and television was the engine of our idiocy. Some machine is always showing us Mind; some entertainment derived from the machine is always showing us Non-Mind.”(Gopnik
Aldous Huxley was either a psychic or God because whatever he wrote in the novel, is actually happening in today’s society. Even if he was imagining these things, he had a commendable imagination. Today, imagination and creativity are diminishing because people are too busy in catching up with television shows, shopping during sales etc. After reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and learning about the World State, I have started to notice some of the themes in my own surroundings. West Hill Collegiate shares a lot of similarities with the World State.
The same thing happened with slot cars once Australia kids heard that Americans like them they were a hit here too. Hairstyles, clothes and even cars had to be basically popular in the USA before they could make it hear. Australians got most of their TV from America some of the many shows are like I love Lucy, father knows best, 77 sunset trip, get smart and more. The hippies generation came from America to but that was towards to the end of the
In “The Merchants of Cool,” the author investigates the rising fascination with teen pop culture. Teenagers are constantly vying for attention, causing them to imitate popular celebrities. Major corporations try to capitalize off this, showing productions and advertisements to influence them further. The era of family friendly programming has no longer any place in primetime television; shows such as Dawson’s Creek and Cruel Intentions have completely infiltrated the TV schedule to reflect teens’ all-consuming fascination with sexuality. One of the major networks responsible for influencing pop culture is MTV, telling kids what’s cool.
Entertainment is a necessity in our world just as it is in the novel. Technology is taking over these people’s society, but they are too blind to see what is happening. This is true in our culture as well. Most people cannot live without their cell phones, iPods, laptops, video games, and huge flat screen televisions. Altogether, Guy Montag’s change in heart towards books is a blessing.