Barb's post on Monday reminded me of something I've been wanting to throw out there for a while now. I agree that something seems to be getting lost as our world makes leaps and bounds in technology. What used to be exciting is now boring. It seems as though every thing from music videos, to television, to club dancing has gone to the extreme. When will it be enough?
I remember when MTV and VH-1 first hit the air waves. I used to sit and watch for hours on end. Not just watch, but get up and dance. The camera actually stayed in one position long enough that you could learn whatever new dance steps were being performed. I learned the entire dance routine from Michael Jackson's Thriller. Now, the camera is switching from one view to the next so quickly, it leaves my head spinning. Just when you see something that catches your eye, it's gone. Honestly, I haven't watched music videos in probably 10 years. When I do happen to catch one, I am quickly reminded as to why I don't bother to watch them anymore.
All of this seems to bleed over into the live touring of groups as well. I would much rather go and see a band like Steely Dan, that may not have a huge stage production, but actually play and sing live, than go and see some girl with a rock hard body who can dance, but is lip syncing. I saw a certain very popular young singer on a show the other night. Yes, she's pretty, she can dance, she was doing moves that would make even the best exotic dancer jealous, but she was lip syncing. It's very disappointing to me. Whatever happened to simply getting out there and singing your heart out? I don't mean that you have to just stand still. But for me the show should be about the music and the voice. Not the eye candy.
You don't even have to sing well to be a singer any more. More importance is placed on how good you look, than whether or not you actually have any talent. It's a shame. I think there are probably a lot of extremely talented people out there that we'll never have the pleasure of hearing just because they don't have the right "look".
Video games are no better. I remember the good old days. Mario, Galaga, Asteroids...ah what great games. I still have all the old Nintendo systems and occasionally sit down and play Mario and Duck Hunt with my boys. The video games of today are so fast-paced that I can't keep up. I'm sure if I sat down for a while, I'd catch on. But every thing moves so fast across the screen, and there is so much going on! It's no wonder we see more and more cases of hyper kids. I think you have to be hyper just to be able to play these games. Although there are a lot of studies of how bad video games are for our children, I have to say this. They must do wonders for our children's eye-hand coordination!
It seems as though a certain innocence is being lost. I'm all for freedom of speech, but when half of the lyrics of your song have to be bleeped out, don't you think maybe you should re-write them. It's like there's a game of "who can be more shocking" going on out there and there are no rules. I just wonder where it will stop. It's hard as a parent, to try and keep your child innocent. But it is possible. You just have to constantly pay attention to what's going on.
What are your thoughts? Do you think that society as a whole has become bored with the ordinary? Do you think that people need to be shocked in order to be entertained?
SIS Bren
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11 comments:
Bren
All of this is so true. One of the main reasons I listen to country music is because the artists can actually sing and play their instruments. Not to say that other genres out there do not have talented people but I think they're becoming harder and harder to find. My husband can't stand country music, too much twang for him, and he sometimes says that's all our kids listen to. Well, when they're with me, he's right. I've tried to turn on other stations only to be appalled (and I'm not a prude) at some/most of the lyrics. I'm also surprised at what they don't bleep out. I either switch it off ASAP or try to tell the kids they said something else, but there's not a lot of words that rhyme with SEX and ASS and BITCH. So, back to country we go because even though they sometimes sing about a six-pack, at least I can say it's a six-pack of soda!
Sadly, this world or perhaps it's just America does need Shock Factor to be entertained. Even the cartoon's have tons of burping and farting and sexual innuendo's now.
Don't know what we can do, people. Any suggestions?
People who are getting so plugged in to fads and games and texting are becoming peak experience addicts. It's like drugs, but it all seems to innocent because we can just say it's the times and not see how overloaded we've gotten from it.
Malcolm
Malcolm,
That is so dead on it's scary! It is an addiction. No doubt about it. I, for one, would like to know the stats on drugs addictions since all this. Are they going down? That would maybe be one good thing that could come of all this.
SIS Barb
There's good that goes with technology, but you guys have brought up really good points about the downside of all that tech, too.
Malcom,
You said it. Sensory overload. Imagine how it will be in just 15 years. I heard on The John Tesh Radio Show the other day that video game addiction is a real illness now. It's hard for me to grasp that people can get so caught up in these games.
SIS Bren
Barb,
I can remember 10 years ago, when my son was 5 or 6 that I would often have to change the radio station in the morning on the way to school. Or even in the evening around 8:00 because the material, be it songs or commentary, was totally inappropriate for a child that age. Or even a child twice his age. I can understand airing these things later in the evening, but as a parent, it's hard to shield your children all day long!
SIS Bren
Hi Tori,
You're right. There is so much good that comes from technology and the all the advancements we make as time goes on. But do we draw a line some where?
SIS Bren
WOW! You Ladies have DEFINITELY made it hard for the naturally verbose (me!) to not go on and on this week with this line of thought. But, again, I will ATTEMPT brevity;)!
Perhaps, consider this: Pretty much since "intelligent" humans walked the earth, there has been a proclivity to "fads," or "addictions," or "'popular' causes." It's what we do so we don't have to think too hard about how much money we have or how much we hate our jobs or, I guess to sum it all up, what we do NOT have. You could start relatively recently in human history -- the "fad" of The Games at the 50K-seat Colosseum in Rome --- citizens are bored and restless, so let's let them watch a few thousand (literally) animals or, better yet, PEOPLE get hacked to death by a gladiator -- and the citizens did, DAILY, by the millions! But, hey, it made for a better day than servitude! Fast-forward and stop here and there along the way at intense penchants for horse-racing, car-racing, prostitution, slavery, and ESPECIALLY affectations for anything NEW that hit the scene -- cars, hula hoops, tommy guns, Prohibition bootleg liquor, Swing music and its associate dance crazes, roller skates, Elvis, The Beatles, Pet Rocks, on and on and on. And, of course, exponentially a larger group got distracted at each era simply because a larger group of folks that can afford such distractions came to be (well, in "richer" countries, like our own. I doubt too many people in deepest Africa or India, etc. are too bothered by the rudeness of children with cell phones, or that little Askbar is playing too much X-Box before he herds the steer back in).
I guess what I'm saying is, as much as all that's been mentioned annoys me, too, is it REALLY more than at any time in history? Or has the PERCENTAGE of people distracted remained pretty much the same? And, really, video games, cell phones, PCs, et al have only been around and easily affordable for less than 20 years, not even a generation --- perhaps we're at the cusp of the peak, and folks like us will turn into MILLIONS like us and start turning things around a bit -- while there ARE still parents of YOUNG children who DO remember "simpler times...;" when we LIVED in the video game parlours spending untold hundreds of dollars in quarters, ate pop-rocks like it was ... well ... candy, "rolled" houses for fun, and FOUGHT our sibs for a place in front of the TV for the latest "Brady Bunch," or "Starsky and Hutch," or (well, pick YOUR obsession) ... as OUR parents wondered why we didn't go out and play, saying "when I was your age...!";)!
So, here I am, making my comment four days after Bren posted this. You see, I can stay offline for several days without panic. Last time I logged on was SEP 22nd. Sure, I enjoy all of the tech and use it for practicality and entertainment. But, it doesn't rule my life (anymore). Yeah, there was a time that I was an addict. Then I remembered that I grew up "old school". Didn't have a TV in the house until I was 11 years old. Before that, entertainment was playing outdoors and listening to radio dramas and comedies in the evening. Life was easy on the soul back then... relaxed. Excitement came from simpler things. I have just rediscovered that when all the current distractions are turned off, one can recapture the relative ease of those times... in the silence.
I doubt that anyone who is caught up in the current whirlwind of sensory overload will come back here and read this.
I did, Brooks;)!
Hello Brooks,
I wonder if you'll come back again. What you wrote makes a ton of sense. I, too, have been trying to stay off the internet more and fill my time with more important things. I find that I have been able to get more done around the house, including spending time with our new pup! Thanks so much for your comment. Life was more simple back then, and I would like to try and recapture more of that.
SIS Bren
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