One of my pet peeves is restaurants that have television sets visible in the dining area. I have to take care to position myself so I can’t see the tube. I don’t want to watch, yet I continually find myself drawn to watch as if by magnetic force.
I don’t watch TV at home, so I’m not an addict in any real sense. Why this strange attraction?
Well, today I learned the answer. I just started reading Al Gore’s book, The Assault on Reason. In the introduction he relates how this strange attraction is the result of the “orienting response”. On the savannah, as Gore points out, there were very good reasons to respond to, and look at, sudden movement in our field of vision. He observes that humans lacking the response didn’t get to be ancestors. They got to be food. Television provokes that response, repeatedly. We literally can’t help ourselves.
All is not lost, however. Gore also points out, citing Marshall McLuhan, that television is a cold medium-most people simply passively accept what the TV feeds them. However, some of us have evolved past that stage. We do question and engage with the drivel sent our way. It may be a cool medium, but it makes some people very hot. Unfortunately, our only recourse-yelling at the tube- is terribly unsatisfying. It just stares back at us, unblinking. Nonetheless, we fight back to the best of our ability.
Gore’s book, by the way, is good reading. Contrary to what the TV pundits say, it is not a wild eyed screed. Here’s a wild eyed screed (from the movie “Network”), making a lot of Gore’s points in more colorful fashion:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTN3s2iVKKI[/youtube]
How did this movie ever get made?
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