Let me begin with a disclaimer, I do not watch television. My wife and I do own one, and it is connected to a DVD player for occassional movies, but even that is not too terribly often.
That said, I was reading this morning that Google added a meme-like function to Google Trends, called Google Hot Trends.
I took this screenshot and quickly edited it in Snipshot.
What does it say about our world that the top trends are all about nonsense. I had to look up the first one to see that Andy Baldwin proposedto Tessa Someone. I am scared to find out who number 10 is.
I will save you the social commentary, and merely point you to tvturnoff.org. I imagine my readers (all 12 of you) are not searching for this stuff, but chances are your students are. Let’s help them turn away from this and into a good book!
[...] The great thing about subscribing to lots of people’s blogs is you find out the latest news on topics that interest you, often as the news is happening. Last night I read the Chris’s Crucial Thought post on Google Trends reveals world’s downfall. [...]
Goody for me–i didn’t have a clue what that nonsense was either! Though confession, my vice right now has been American Idol, which ends today or tomorrow. The fact that I am not sure tells folks that i am not totally committed to it. Yes we have a tv or two, but in all honesty, our shows are MASH, Jeopardy, and House, and then pretty much anything on the Sports channels. Oh, and on Friday I will watch “What Not to Wear.” So I guess i am bad with tv habits, but not as bad as some.
That trend you mentioned is shocking. Yes, I would say it shows a decline in values and morals. But alas, way too many televisions, and yes even computers, have become little idols all over the world. Sad but true. Now I have to close my laptop since i now think I am trend. BUMMER.
Chris
Granted my wife spends more time with our children than I do. I am not going to pretend for one second to do as much for my girls as my wife does. My girls typically want their mother. I do however try to chase them around the house, tickle them, keep them under control, and tuck them in at night. The reason that I don’t spend more time with them is because after their baths they are usually playing in the den while my wife watches “American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, the Batchelor, etc.†I love my wife and my girls, but I find these shows to be a waste of my time. I’d rather surf the net, read, or do research. I do enjoy watching a good movie from time to time and I also like watching education television shows when I have the opportunity. Oh yes, I do watch college football in the fall, but that’s on the weekend. Therefore, I understand your post and I love the link http://www.tvturnoff.org/ . Keep on keeping on with your blog…
Thanks
William Bishop (Bill) aka lostjohns
Hey Chris,
This particular debate is too interesting to let one side have all the fun. I’m coming at this as one who tracks no fewer than ten shows a week. During some particularly rich years I’ve followed sixteen, though my attention is always kind of divided between teevee, lesson planning, and grading.
Look, I just don’t think tossing teevee (or any particular media, for that matter) is a healthy motion nor, if I may, is it particularly characteristic of a next-generation sort like yourself. It’s all about owning the media, right? Redeeming it, to dip into Christian parlance.
There is terrible television out there, true. It’s often the most popular television too. But that doesn’t change the fact that there is exceptional television out there. Speaking anecdotally, I’m still living with the transformative effects of The Wire‘s season finale, which positively wrecked this cynical soul, which a year later still draws me closer to and elicits empathy for a people and a place I’d never before considered, an effect which was uniquely possible through television.
I never read Steven Johnson’s Everything Bad Is Good For You because it just seemed so intuitively true. Film critic Scott Tobias of The Onion’s AV Club says we’re undergoing the golden age of television — its renaissance. Both guys are right. Television is becoming more complex, requiring more engagement and scholarship. Lost has inspired some of the most intricate analysis and remixing outside of Norton’s literary textbooks, for example.
And the fact of terrible television doesn’t mean our kids aren’t reading stupid novels, trash fiction which only exist to reinforce their already twisted conception of How The World Works.
There are rag magazines and great cultural periodicals.
There are lame netcasts and great spoken word.
There is a great photography and there is pornography.
My impression is that School 2.0 is (in part) about helping students to sort out the great and lame of any media, which makes you something of a paradox. Any help?
Great post Dan!
It is much easier to say “all TV is crap” than to ask the question “what makes a crap TV show? In an age where new media is generated as quickly as our fossil fuels are being burned it is so much more important for us to teach our students to be “a critical audience” rather than a passive one. If we can teach them that they vote with their eyes like the do with their wallets we can help them see that they influence what gets made and the quality of that product. If they expect more engaging programing it will come. There is great stuff out there you just have to know how to find it.
Just watched this: http://www.maxedoutmovie.com/
Fantastic!
If we set the bar high, it will remain there.
Just when I was starting to feel dumb for investing my comment-writing time here. Thanks for the expansion, Justin.
Dan,
Recently I am trying to make more of an effort to comment more on other peoples comments. Yours in particular was really interesting and was soaked in good thinking. When it jumps out like that it’s hard to resist. It also led me to your blog which is now in my RSS reader.
Thanks Chris ! For making it all happen.
[...] articulated my non-appreciative attitude towards television some time back, and he [...]
i don’t think that watching tv is such a bad thing its a choice like so many other choices. but thanx for that url tvturnoff.org i am gonna stay away from it.