For the love of ... well, whatever you hold dear, PLEASE help fight stupidity and the decay of our culture. How, you say? Here are a few suggestions ...
Suggestion number one - Don't watch reality TV shows. Honestly, it seems ridiculous, but it is eating your brain away. I am guilty of watching random shows [when we had cable, cutting that off was a great decision!] but now that I don't have access to it, I don't miss it. I find that it is easier to concentrate on and better my own reality if I'm not in a Tori & Dean coma. Having everything [materialistically] that I don't have shoved in my face by reality TV [i.e. Cribz-esque shows and celebrity "reality" shows] is not healthy. I don't think that the "reality" of my life has anything to do with the "reality" of a perfectly coiffed celebrity with millions to blow on home renovations, birthday parties and yet another Land Rover. What is worse, and something I could never get into, are the contest "reality" shows like American Idol [I honestly have never been able to sit through an entire episode. Probably the worst thing I've ever witnessed.] and The Bachelor. These don't even make sense to me. Do you remember Joe Millionaire? I remember my room mate and I watched that in its first season when the concept of this type of show was new. I have to admit it was fairly interesting, but I still had the lingering question of "so, this is really what is happening? or ... is it a TV show ... I'm confused." I was also about 19 years old. Fast forward to 2010 and it's hard to find a channel who's main programming schedule is free of shows considered "reality" TV. Does this not bother anyone else? I think that if everyone took a two week vacation from Facebook, Reality TV, texting, and yes, blogging, taking an objective look at what it does to people and how it is shaping our culture and numbing us into puddles of emoticons, they would have a much healthier fear of the cultural meltdown we are about to experience.
On to suggestion number two - Stp tlkng lyk thz, plz! R u shur u wnt ppl 2 thnk u r a dumazz whn they lk @ the way we comnik8? Good lord, that took me forever to type. Haha. See, I even type out "haha" instead of LOL. If I could ever be disciplined enough to write a book, I might call it "LOL: The Death of the English Language" or something along those lines. Teachers are getting "IDK" as answers to questions on tests and full grown adults are putting "b/c" instead of because on job applications. This horrifies me. This has to be stopped now. And yes, I realize there is no real way to help that other than spreading the word about how awesome REAL words are.
Number three - Read a book. I can't tell you how much this helps your brain function. It's sad how many people don't read. I could describe about half of the people I see on a regular basis as "rubes," and that makes me so sad. My favorite definition of the slang word, rube is; "someone not interested in culture." Isn't that fascinating? The longer I live, the more I realize that there are a lot of people out there that aren't consciously trying to make us look like idiots, they simply aren't interested in bettering themselves on any level beyond the physical. I'm not saying you have to read all the time or be a shut in and read a book a day like me, I'm just saying that we can all benefit from learning a few new words a year and reading is a great way to make that happen. We have to fight illiteracy! It is so sad to see children who enter the 5th grade, reading at a 2nd grade level. Instead of shrugging and blaming it on the school system, how about doing something positive like helping your child read way more gooder. [just making sure you're paying attention!] Sometimes it is enough to just keep your brain healthy, that way when all of this shit explodes into oblivion, you might actually have a thought left that can help us put it all back together again.
I have about 384 more suggestions, but I have to go to work. At the library, yay! And while I'll no doubt be inspired by seeing children and adults of all ages checking out books by the tens, I'll inevitably have to tell a grown man or woman to take a break from MySpace to come and retrieve their child who is screaming and throwing books at patrons, unresponsive to our reprimands.
Agreed!
ReplyDeletefor the most part - I do watch a bit of reality tv. No contest shows, there is no redeemable factor. I like my "Bad Girls Club" show because I don't know people that act like that and seeing that extreme form of degeneracy doesn't cause me to want to be like them. I'd say it achieves the opposite. I want to spread rational thinking before fighting and to stop promiscuity though I doubt it does this for the people that are like them. I'm sure it reinforces some delusion that what they are doing is okay and that they do not think about how this is being used as shock factor entertainment. Shock factor being that it isn't the norm... Human nature is shit these days.