Yesterday was cloudy, rainy and altogether dreary and depressing as far as weather is concerned, and although I got off work at 5 and had plenty of time to go to the gym, I found myself settling in on the couch to watch reruns of the VH1 smash hit, Rock of Love. Not that there is anything wrong with taking a lazy afternoon every now and then to cuddle up, but I berated myself later for wasting a good two hours watching episodes of a mindless tv show that I had already seen before. That time would have been better spent finishing the book I started two weeks ago, or organizing my room a bit, or even (dare I say it?) going to the gym!
My friend Cate does not even own a tv in her apartment, and I must admit, this constantly baffles me. I have become such a creature of the phenomena of "background noise" that I frequently have a television on and have no idea what channel it is tuned to, but I appreciate the noise nonetheless. Cate, living in NYC, gets plenty of "background noise" all the time from traffic, sirens, etc, but I can't help feel that when I am in her apartment alone sometimes it's eerily quiet. Just this past Decemeber when I was staying with her, if I was by myself getting ready, I would turn on her iPod and play music for something to listen to. Don't get me wrong, I greatly admire Cate and her roommate's ability to withstand the overly popular trend of filling every room in a house with a television, and I will fully admit (although, somewhat sheepishly) that I am not to that level of willpower yet. I suppose that my generationally-influenced addiction reflects what is largely both a problem and a way of life for our society. The media dictates and influences almost everything - just look at Britney Spears and her downward spiral of destruction. Sure, she probably would have a had a few bumps in the road if she was just an average joe (josephine?), but undoubtedly the media fed and nursed her destruction until it exploded in everyone's faces and no one could avoid it. There is no privacy anymore. Even me, right now, "blogging" my thoughts; I am allowing anyone who happens to access this page to know everything that I am thinking at one particular point in time. I believe that we are breeding a new generation of technospawn that will only feel validated if inundated by media attention.
Which brings me to something that has been bothering me since its debut about a month ago: this new show entitled "Moment of Truth." This show goes on the premise that people are naturally inclined to lie when faced with a question that are not comfortable answering, so they kindly strap willing participants to a lie detector and ask them exorbitantly inappropriate questions in front of a live studio audience, and millions (well, probably thousands) of Americans that are bored or dumb enough to tune into this nonsense. I have never actually watched the show, the commercials for it alone are enough to send me into a sputtering diatribe of its ridiculousness, but last week one of the participants got dogged by the media after her appearance on the show for saying that she had cheated on her husband with one of his friends. Ok, so let me get this straight: the producers intentionally ask these questions in hopes of sparking some sort of scandalous answer, which they in turn believe will attract viewers, so they manage to snag one of these contestants and then harass them for answering truthfully about what happened!!? ... ?!?!?! Let's be honest: monogamy is not a strong suit for Americans, so let's not all get on our moral highhorse here and berate this woman incessantly for what she claims was a "mistake," but rather, the people who should be receiving begrudgment would be the producers of this ungodly inappropriate and idiotic show. Not that I believe that this woman is in the right for cheating on her husband with his friend; clearly that is not the way to go, but it probably would have best been left for her and husband to deal with and not viewers across the country. On top of all that, she received some sort of cash reward because she answered truthfully to all the questions asked. I disagree with this show on so many levels, I find it hard to even form my thoughts into words efficiently. I may be a creature of comfort with my television, but I refuse to stoop to those levels of viewing.
For now, I'll just keep it on background noise, and try to make a more conscious effort to read.
