| ever since the invention of mass media (and probably before). What about Al Capone, Bonnie & Clyde, Jesse James, etc, etc. We don't have a monopoly about this stuff. The only difference is that we have almost instantaneous, global, infomation exchange. We did NOT have that 30 years ago and before. I think we, as a society, are going through the birthpangs or growth pains of having this technology. More and more of the global media are being concentrated into fewer and fewer companies, which ends up skewing what is percieved as "popular".
just because someone puts out an album or a music video does not make them a paragon or role model. If some person sees their hyped success (which may or may not be real - how many of these people have real assets or financial savvy that will see them through their decline into obsucrity and old age?) as something to emulate, then their priorities are about getting money by whatever means possible. These types of people have existed for as long as money has been a medium of exchange for goods and services.
What *I* see as a problem in modern society is that advertisers have gotten very good at manipulation of individual behavior, and that they target marketing towards children. Children don't have the life experience to take what they see on the tube with a grain of salt - they also have a "pack mentality" that is encouraged in school (because it makes them easier to control, and it facilitates cooperation), and exploited by advertisers. THIS is what I see as a problem.
My mother, who taught junior high school in the 50s and 60s noticed something once Television became ubiquitous inside the household: her students became much more homogenous - before TV, different children knew different myths and stories; stories passed down in the family that were culturally related. That all went away, and she compared her students to the "pod people" in Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Now, with all the specialized channels available, this may start to break up, but the specialized channels are split along demographic lines, and it's almost painful for adults to watch "kids" channels (at least it is for me). I think "they" want this, so the adults will tend to leave the kids alone with the one-eyed babysitter, so it can program them to be good little consumers and keep mommy and daddy working their butts off so they can own the lates PS2 game or spongebob action figure.
Well, Ididn't MEAN for this to turn into a rant... |
