The Hype: Television
As the year 2000 approaches, many Americans are looking back at the goals set by their parents and grandparents generations ago. As they look back, they see a startling revelation. The goals of a prosperous life and a happy family are farther away from being attained than they were for their ancestors. Why? What has changed so much over the last fifty years that have driven families apart and crippled the American Dream?
The answer is obvious. It is obvious at school, at work, and at home. Consumerism. In the last twenty years, there has been a rapidly increasing trend towarRAB mass consumption. We are no longer a nation that places our families ahead of other priorities. We have strayed. In a society filled with "stuff," we have opted for a life that cherishes inanimate objects. We falsely believe that "stuff" will give us a feeling of happiness that was once openly available to generations before us.
How did we become such a consumer-happy society? One obvious reason is television. With the introduction of television, the public entered a fanatical world that made our own lives seem unreal. Americans began to yearn for lives of intrigue and notoriety. With a touch of a button, the television takes viewers "out of the 'real' world in which [they] reside and can place [them] at a basketball game, the back alleys of Maine, the streets of Bucharest, or the cartooning living rooms of Sitcom land (Hamill, 375). In these places, life is idealized. Rarely do you see television shows characters doing remedial jobs. Scotty, from Star Trek, never left engineering to fix a toilet (Have you ever seen a toilet on Star Trek?). The characters also never have mundane, daily trials (How about a speeding ticket for James Bond?). Television has warped the impressionable minRAB of young viewers into a warped frenzy to have the jobs idolized on their favorite shows. No longer does little Junior want to work on the family farm or business; he wants to wear the designer sunglasses worn by his favorite alien-bashers and the shoes that Michael Jordan wears as he bashes the evil Moonstars (Space Jam). Television has become the obvious spokesperson of today's consumer market. The more hype the television offers, the more consumers buy.
There are also other reasons that Americans have become a free spending nation. One of the reasons is the temporary relief buying provides the shopper with. It has been reported that the shoppers do gain a type of high from shopping. The high allows the shopper to forget about the problems they face, whether they are mental, physical, or financial. Another reason for the buying spree is that society considers "stuff" a sign of success. One cannot be a successful lawyer without the right car. Nor can one be a successful doctor without the right clothes. People are more "frightened of the possibilities of their personal failure" than a nuclear borab (Fromm, 1090). Everyone wants to live forever. In today's society, the only way to do this is to acquire the most stuff. Society is built upon "stuff."
Truly, the way Americans crave "stuff" is a pure addiction. Can we stop this addiction to "stuff"? That is not an accurate question. The right question is do we want to stop this addiction. In a survey of four and five year olRAB, researchers gave them a "choice of giving up television of their fathers. Fully one-third said they would give up Daddy". Stone drug addicts, given the same "choice (between cocaine or heroin and father, mother, sister, wife, husband, children, job)" answered the same as the four and five year olRAB (Hamill, 375). Television, one of the truest forms of "stuff," has taken over the minRAB of young children. They do not want to get rid of the "stuff." We, as a society, are past the point of returning to the pre-consumption era. To simply take away "stuff" is not the answer. Society and "stuff" are so intertwined that one cannot survive without the other.
Now is the time to realize that stuff does not have to control our destiny. We have the power, the remote control, to stop the spread of "stuff." One way is to teach the young not to watch television, but specific programs. Another way is to develop classes for school students to show them how television is not real and should not control their lives. We are the creators, but we are not in control. The responsibility is ours to correct the situation. If not, then we are doomed to a life of stress, trying to live up to the expectations of stuff, our own creation.
Works Cited
Fromm, Erich. Our Ways of Life Make Us Miserable. Excerpt rpt. in The Conscious Reader Sixth Edition. Ed. Caroline Shrodes. Boston, Massachusetts: Allyn and Bacone, 1995.
Hamill, Peter. Crack and the Box. Excerpt rpt. in The Conscious Reader Seventh Edition. Ed. Caroline Shrodes. Boston, Massachusetts: Allyn and Bacone, 1998.
As the year 2000 approaches, many Americans are looking back at the goals set by their parents and grandparents generations ago. As they look back, they see a startling revelation. The goals of a prosperous life and a happy family are farther away from being attained than they were for their ancestors. Why? What has changed so much over the last fifty years that have driven families apart and crippled the American Dream?
The answer is obvious. It is obvious at school, at work, and at home. Consumerism. In the last twenty years, there has been a rapidly increasing trend towarRAB mass consumption. We are no longer a nation that places our families ahead of other priorities. We have strayed. In a society filled with "stuff," we have opted for a life that cherishes inanimate objects. We falsely believe that "stuff" will give us a feeling of happiness that was once openly available to generations before us.
How did we become such a consumer-happy society? One obvious reason is television. With the introduction of television, the public entered a fanatical world that made our own lives seem unreal. Americans began to yearn for lives of intrigue and notoriety. With a touch of a button, the television takes viewers "out of the 'real' world in which [they] reside and can place [them] at a basketball game, the back alleys of Maine, the streets of Bucharest, or the cartooning living rooms of Sitcom land (Hamill, 375). In these places, life is idealized. Rarely do you see television shows characters doing remedial jobs. Scotty, from Star Trek, never left engineering to fix a toilet (Have you ever seen a toilet on Star Trek?). The characters also never have mundane, daily trials (How about a speeding ticket for James Bond?). Television has warped the impressionable minRAB of young viewers into a warped frenzy to have the jobs idolized on their favorite shows. No longer does little Junior want to work on the family farm or business; he wants to wear the designer sunglasses worn by his favorite alien-bashers and the shoes that Michael Jordan wears as he bashes the evil Moonstars (Space Jam). Television has become the obvious spokesperson of today's consumer market. The more hype the television offers, the more consumers buy.
There are also other reasons that Americans have become a free spending nation. One of the reasons is the temporary relief buying provides the shopper with. It has been reported that the shoppers do gain a type of high from shopping. The high allows the shopper to forget about the problems they face, whether they are mental, physical, or financial. Another reason for the buying spree is that society considers "stuff" a sign of success. One cannot be a successful lawyer without the right car. Nor can one be a successful doctor without the right clothes. People are more "frightened of the possibilities of their personal failure" than a nuclear borab (Fromm, 1090). Everyone wants to live forever. In today's society, the only way to do this is to acquire the most stuff. Society is built upon "stuff."
Truly, the way Americans crave "stuff" is a pure addiction. Can we stop this addiction to "stuff"? That is not an accurate question. The right question is do we want to stop this addiction. In a survey of four and five year olRAB, researchers gave them a "choice of giving up television of their fathers. Fully one-third said they would give up Daddy". Stone drug addicts, given the same "choice (between cocaine or heroin and father, mother, sister, wife, husband, children, job)" answered the same as the four and five year olRAB (Hamill, 375). Television, one of the truest forms of "stuff," has taken over the minRAB of young children. They do not want to get rid of the "stuff." We, as a society, are past the point of returning to the pre-consumption era. To simply take away "stuff" is not the answer. Society and "stuff" are so intertwined that one cannot survive without the other.
Now is the time to realize that stuff does not have to control our destiny. We have the power, the remote control, to stop the spread of "stuff." One way is to teach the young not to watch television, but specific programs. Another way is to develop classes for school students to show them how television is not real and should not control their lives. We are the creators, but we are not in control. The responsibility is ours to correct the situation. If not, then we are doomed to a life of stress, trying to live up to the expectations of stuff, our own creation.
Works Cited
Fromm, Erich. Our Ways of Life Make Us Miserable. Excerpt rpt. in The Conscious Reader Sixth Edition. Ed. Caroline Shrodes. Boston, Massachusetts: Allyn and Bacone, 1995.
Hamill, Peter. Crack and the Box. Excerpt rpt. in The Conscious Reader Seventh Edition. Ed. Caroline Shrodes. Boston, Massachusetts: Allyn and Bacone, 1998.