Kill Your Television
Wednesday 04/13/2005 3:30 AM
 Instead of enjoying the warm spring weather outside, all the kids at my nephew Alex's 6th birthday party preferred to stay inside and watch television. (2005) |
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I wrote this a couple days ago:
After the water balloons, piñata and other activities, the kids started gravitating toward the television like moths attracted to a candle flame. Someone started channel surfing and soon they were chanting "Avatar, Avatar" until they found Avatar on the right station. Then Shannon watched in horror as all the children became quiet as they were mesmerized by the television show. She pointed to the sunny outdoors just beyond the open windows and said, "We should be outside having fun," but it was no use. They were captured in the grip of the moving picture box and it's beamed-in glare of hypnotic spells. She said she wanted to take a photograph (let's hope she did).
Of course, I was discussing my nephew Alex's 6th birthday party. Well... Shannon sent me a picture!
Look at those innocent children seduced by the 24 frames per second mass media re-interpretation of life as it is (or can be) inside the idiot box. It doesn't matter if it's the media or the medium that's the message, it's the unspoken words drilled into our heads that is the problem: WE ARE MEDIA. WE ARE LEGION. WE CONTROL THE HORIZONTAL AND THE VERTICAL. RESISTANCE IS FUTILE.
Of course, I remember watching a cartoon or two when I was a child, but that was different — somehow. I'll get back to you on that.
Courtesy of Shannon, here is the Wikipedia link for the Avatar television show.
And once again, Wikipedia impresses me. As much as I use it, it never occurred to me to check for a current children's cartoon.
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