It's quite easy to judge my little sister for watching garbage on Netflix. After all, she is watching half promotional shows about dolls and running blue hedgehogs that fight the same robots in the same village for seasons and seasons of short 20-minute animation bullshit. I mean, when was the last time she actually watched a whole movie? When we went to a cinema?
I started doing some introspection to make me feel better, but I actually ended up in a worse state than I was before. I started off by examining what I have been watching. Sure, my episodes of bullshit aren't 20-minutes long, they are 60-minutes long and I watch about 1 and 1/2 of them on a daily basis. We'll get to the 1/2 part later. Essentially, we are watching the same amount of television in minutes, but not in episodes (for those that are bad at math, my sister watches about 4 episodes per day). Now 90 minutes might not seem like much of a big deal. After all, the average American watches about 293 minutes of television on a daily basis. But it's not just television. Before and after I watch my 90 minutes of Netflix, I spend god knows how much time on Youtube. In my defense, I can say that I hardly watch anything but informative videos. The problem is that I'm not really watching them. They are there in the background as white noise that I half assimilate while playing chess or aimlessly browse Facebook, Instagram or some other shitty, addictive platform. Sum it all up and I'm pretty sure I'm well above what the average American consumes in terms of television.
Let's travel back in time a bit. I remember that when I was 10 years old like my sister, watching television was quite a luxury. We had many cassettes and a few DVDs that I would watch over and over. But those were movies. Real movies, like the ones Disney used to make. Movies in which music was written for the movie. I remember watching Lord of the Rings and marveling at Aragorn's strength, Legolas' agility and, much later, Sam's loyalty. I also remember acting out scenes from those movies my swinging my sword at plants, vases, cups... Nothing could stand in the way of the mighty Jedi armed with the cardboard remains of Christmas wrapping paper. There was a time when I had to save up money to buy Ice Age so I could watch it at home.
While remembering these things it finally hit me: People binge on television because it is widely available now. Of course if the 10 year old me was presented with Netflix I'd quickly get bored of Lord of the Rings. Of course I would watch the same garbage that my sister watches. Moreover, this behavior would be reinforced by the fact that my friends would also watch it. So there it is! The problem (if it is a problem, some might disagree) lies in the availability of the resource. So what now? Do I stop watching television and pick up a book for once in my life? Sounds simple, but the problem lies deeper than television.
Has it ever happened to you, that a friend would ask something along the lines of "have you seen that video, where _________________". Most likely, you haven't. Your friend then considers it his duty to show you said video by pulling out his phone and checking messages and notifications on the way. You then spend the next 20 minutes or so, aimlessly watching that video and a couple of others one too. Is that what friendship is now? Is that how I'm supposed to interact with my family members? Most often than not, there comes a point where you don't have anything to say (especially with family and really close friend). Both become uncomfortable with the pause. It seems that we, as individuals, have lost the ability to just be. To do nothing. There is nothing wrong with moments of silence...
Faced with an uncomfortable situation, people pick up their phone and look at memes. I'm guilty of that too. I'm also guilty of sending memes to people to show them that I do think about them, that I care, that I miss them. They become a substitute for articulated emotion, as if people started to communicate by sending each other caricatures of their daily life. I could write "I miss you, let's have some coffee and tell each other stories". Yet I don't. Most people know that social media is bad for their attention span and neck (yes, you're killing yourself by looking down on a screen) and yet nobody acts. People keep using it, aimlessly... like sheep... or drug addicts. Why can't we stop sending each other virtual garbage, and just express our emotion like intelligent creatures.
Speaking of drugs, there is one that is really underrated. It's internet porn and it is really, really present. Just look at some stats. It's not just porn clips of people having sex. It's all those Instagram "models" that post half-naked pictures of themselves. It's all those ads that feature perfectly shaped babes.
"The modern man can see more babes in one sitting than his ancestors in a lifetime" - Gary Wilson
Just like any drug, the more you use it, the more you need to get your high. So you progress into kinkier and kinkier videos until you realize that what used to be exciting is now dull. Girls from your everyday life can't compare to porn actresses. It's not just men that suffer. Young women exposed to porn have a very strange idea of what "normal" sex is. To be correct, most young folk actually have no bloody idea what "normal" sex is. If you don't believe me, go pull down the pants of 100 guys aged between 16 to 21 and you'll see that the vast majority of them have no pubic hair at all (please don't actually do that, and yes I acknowledge that the cited source is the opposite of reliable). Now where did they all get that idea? Oh right, the internet and limitless porn now accessible from any device so you don't have to save those videos for your camping trip. Right, so let's say, even though I've hardly given any evidence, that porn is bad because it alters the perception of sexuality in younger people. In all people... The simple solution would be to just quit. Right? Wrong. Like I said, porn is everywhere and quitting isn't that simple.
If you put together the inability of people to do nothing, the wide availability of porn and the addiction to social media you get a pretty bleak story:
Jimmy has a day off. All his friends are busy. He does some school work, but is unable to focus. Without him realizing, his mind is distracted by his cellphone. His brain is waiting for that high that comes when the phone finally vibrates. He picks up the phone and visits Instagram for the 100th time today. Just like 10 minutes ago, nothing new has appeared on his feed. Still on his phone, he then proceeds to open the search tab where he sees plenty of half-naked models on the beach. These models are carefully picked by an algorithm that knows exactly what he likes and shows them in just the right amount to keep him hooked. He spends about 20 minutes looking at these babes. He's bored. He switches to Facebook, then Snapchat. Then he feels an urge. No problem, his favorite porn site is just a click away. Finding the right video seems like an endless task. After all, Jimmy has standards and specific needs that become more and more defined. After having done his business, he feels embarrassed but he successfully represses that emotion by watching a dozen videos on Youtube. Bored, he remembers that he hasn't finished watching that episode on Netflix. Episode 2353... or was is 2354? It's hard to keep track, but no worries, Netflix remembers.
Half the day passed.
Having done this reflection exercise, I already feel that I'm on the right track. Now how do I explain this to a 10 year old girl who so desperately seeks to conform and be accepted by her friends? Even more worrisome, how do I alter my own behavior? I've already been excluded by many of my acquaintances for not going to bars and clubs. How much isolation can I handle? There has to be someone out there who shares my opinion. Can I disconnect from the garbage or do I adapt and tell myself that this is how things work now? Maybe I should just become a "Modern Barbarian".
To be continued...
I started doing some introspection to make me feel better, but I actually ended up in a worse state than I was before. I started off by examining what I have been watching. Sure, my episodes of bullshit aren't 20-minutes long, they are 60-minutes long and I watch about 1 and 1/2 of them on a daily basis. We'll get to the 1/2 part later. Essentially, we are watching the same amount of television in minutes, but not in episodes (for those that are bad at math, my sister watches about 4 episodes per day). Now 90 minutes might not seem like much of a big deal. After all, the average American watches about 293 minutes of television on a daily basis. But it's not just television. Before and after I watch my 90 minutes of Netflix, I spend god knows how much time on Youtube. In my defense, I can say that I hardly watch anything but informative videos. The problem is that I'm not really watching them. They are there in the background as white noise that I half assimilate while playing chess or aimlessly browse Facebook, Instagram or some other shitty, addictive platform. Sum it all up and I'm pretty sure I'm well above what the average American consumes in terms of television.
Let's travel back in time a bit. I remember that when I was 10 years old like my sister, watching television was quite a luxury. We had many cassettes and a few DVDs that I would watch over and over. But those were movies. Real movies, like the ones Disney used to make. Movies in which music was written for the movie. I remember watching Lord of the Rings and marveling at Aragorn's strength, Legolas' agility and, much later, Sam's loyalty. I also remember acting out scenes from those movies my swinging my sword at plants, vases, cups... Nothing could stand in the way of the mighty Jedi armed with the cardboard remains of Christmas wrapping paper. There was a time when I had to save up money to buy Ice Age so I could watch it at home.
While remembering these things it finally hit me: People binge on television because it is widely available now. Of course if the 10 year old me was presented with Netflix I'd quickly get bored of Lord of the Rings. Of course I would watch the same garbage that my sister watches. Moreover, this behavior would be reinforced by the fact that my friends would also watch it. So there it is! The problem (if it is a problem, some might disagree) lies in the availability of the resource. So what now? Do I stop watching television and pick up a book for once in my life? Sounds simple, but the problem lies deeper than television.
Has it ever happened to you, that a friend would ask something along the lines of "have you seen that video, where _________________". Most likely, you haven't. Your friend then considers it his duty to show you said video by pulling out his phone and checking messages and notifications on the way. You then spend the next 20 minutes or so, aimlessly watching that video and a couple of others one too. Is that what friendship is now? Is that how I'm supposed to interact with my family members? Most often than not, there comes a point where you don't have anything to say (especially with family and really close friend). Both become uncomfortable with the pause. It seems that we, as individuals, have lost the ability to just be. To do nothing. There is nothing wrong with moments of silence...
Faced with an uncomfortable situation, people pick up their phone and look at memes. I'm guilty of that too. I'm also guilty of sending memes to people to show them that I do think about them, that I care, that I miss them. They become a substitute for articulated emotion, as if people started to communicate by sending each other caricatures of their daily life. I could write "I miss you, let's have some coffee and tell each other stories". Yet I don't. Most people know that social media is bad for their attention span and neck (yes, you're killing yourself by looking down on a screen) and yet nobody acts. People keep using it, aimlessly... like sheep... or drug addicts. Why can't we stop sending each other virtual garbage, and just express our emotion like intelligent creatures.
Speaking of drugs, there is one that is really underrated. It's internet porn and it is really, really present. Just look at some stats. It's not just porn clips of people having sex. It's all those Instagram "models" that post half-naked pictures of themselves. It's all those ads that feature perfectly shaped babes.
"The modern man can see more babes in one sitting than his ancestors in a lifetime" - Gary Wilson
Just like any drug, the more you use it, the more you need to get your high. So you progress into kinkier and kinkier videos until you realize that what used to be exciting is now dull. Girls from your everyday life can't compare to porn actresses. It's not just men that suffer. Young women exposed to porn have a very strange idea of what "normal" sex is. To be correct, most young folk actually have no bloody idea what "normal" sex is. If you don't believe me, go pull down the pants of 100 guys aged between 16 to 21 and you'll see that the vast majority of them have no pubic hair at all (please don't actually do that, and yes I acknowledge that the cited source is the opposite of reliable). Now where did they all get that idea? Oh right, the internet and limitless porn now accessible from any device so you don't have to save those videos for your camping trip. Right, so let's say, even though I've hardly given any evidence, that porn is bad because it alters the perception of sexuality in younger people. In all people... The simple solution would be to just quit. Right? Wrong. Like I said, porn is everywhere and quitting isn't that simple.
If you put together the inability of people to do nothing, the wide availability of porn and the addiction to social media you get a pretty bleak story:
Jimmy has a day off. All his friends are busy. He does some school work, but is unable to focus. Without him realizing, his mind is distracted by his cellphone. His brain is waiting for that high that comes when the phone finally vibrates. He picks up the phone and visits Instagram for the 100th time today. Just like 10 minutes ago, nothing new has appeared on his feed. Still on his phone, he then proceeds to open the search tab where he sees plenty of half-naked models on the beach. These models are carefully picked by an algorithm that knows exactly what he likes and shows them in just the right amount to keep him hooked. He spends about 20 minutes looking at these babes. He's bored. He switches to Facebook, then Snapchat. Then he feels an urge. No problem, his favorite porn site is just a click away. Finding the right video seems like an endless task. After all, Jimmy has standards and specific needs that become more and more defined. After having done his business, he feels embarrassed but he successfully represses that emotion by watching a dozen videos on Youtube. Bored, he remembers that he hasn't finished watching that episode on Netflix. Episode 2353... or was is 2354? It's hard to keep track, but no worries, Netflix remembers.
Half the day passed.
Having done this reflection exercise, I already feel that I'm on the right track. Now how do I explain this to a 10 year old girl who so desperately seeks to conform and be accepted by her friends? Even more worrisome, how do I alter my own behavior? I've already been excluded by many of my acquaintances for not going to bars and clubs. How much isolation can I handle? There has to be someone out there who shares my opinion. Can I disconnect from the garbage or do I adapt and tell myself that this is how things work now? Maybe I should just become a "Modern Barbarian".
To be continued...
