Amusing ourselves to death

Postman said that his main concern was not the junk on television but the attempt to present it as a serious discourse. On one hand, the junk is attempting to present itself as serious, and on the other hand serious shows have to be entertaining and therefore present themselves as junk.
This paradox is emphasized by shows such as "hollywood stories" which trace stars' life with a very serious tone. A lot of shows exist today which are trying to convince the spectators that Lindsay Lohan or Paris Hilton's life must be known and understood for the sake of one's culture.
In order to escape this madness, one would say that the only alternative is to shut down the television and to turn it on at 8 to watch the news. Unfortunately, even the news are becoming an entertainment since it has to compete with all the "junk" shows. The only solution is to shut down the TV and never turning it on again. In France the first TV reality show appeared in 2001, since then it never stoped, every year new shows, more perverted every time. It is difficult to fight it, because it is so easy to sit down and watch all those "people like you", to make fun of them, or to support them, because they are just like us and we recognize ourselves in them. If we shut down the TV for ever what would we miss?
We can go to the cinema to watch movies and listen to radios or read newspaper in order to get the news. Let's try to stop vegetalisation of our mind by throwing out our televisions !

Cultural imperisalism

"Since the time of Homer every European, in what he could say about the Orient, was a racist, an imperialist, and almost totally ethnocentric." Edward Said.

What Said used to call "orientalism" refers to the view of Orient by the occidental world, for exemple the painting representing the woman laying down is an orientalist paiting, because it reprensents what the occidentals where assuming the Orient was.

Nowadays cultural imperialism expresses itself through new ways: Internet, cinema, television, comics ... Most of the website are in English, most of the movies which comes out on cinemas are americans, and comics for children are representing capitalistic values. The problem of this phenomenon is that it slowly kills national cultures.

For example; in France, 30 years ago, hungry people were going to eat at the bistrot (typical cheap french restaurant) but now, everyone is going to eat at mc Donald or KFC. It is faster, cheaper, therefore much more convenient if you do not have time or if you are broke.

Now the criteria to choose movies is what are their box office? It is completely irrelevant, the number of entrances never made a movie any good! It is an indicator, but if Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie are playing in a movie, it will clearly be viewed more, and it does not mean that the movie is good.

We should pay more attention on this, and try to escape this imperialism as much as we can because our national cultures have as much to offer as any american or western culture.

Empowerment

The most interesting part of empowerment is how it can increase one's self confidence. Behind a screen where nobody sees you, one can be anything he wants to be. Physical inabilities or appurtenance to a minority are not fences for a rich social life anymore.
It has good sides, for example for people who are not confident it is much easier not to talk face to face but through a computer, and make them known this way. Internet and the new networks are good to improve one's self confidence.
Not only one can change facets of their personality through the internet, but people can also build a whole new person: there are many cases where people created blogs, putted pictures online of someone they were pretending to be. This is when using the web is not about becoming a more confident human being, but about rejecting the person they actually are, not trying to improve their flows, but giving up on them and adopting a brand new image and personality.
I personally hate when some people are acting chocked when they find out that people can spend time on second life and enjoying it, those are the same who are saying "how can you be so desperate". No one is in the position to judge it, it is a new phenomenon, therefore it is chocking to some people. However not everyone has the social skills to be really socially happy in real life, if second life or facebook are allowing them to live happier, where is the problem?

The Disappearance of Childhood in the Age of the Web

The little miss contests are on my opinion a great illustration of the disappearance of childhood; little girls are competing on several fields; talent, beauty, walk; in order to get the price of the most attractive one. They are wearing makeup, provocative dresses, and sometimes have to walk in their bathing suit. The problem is that the parents' aim is to make their little girls look like seductresses, by trying to give a sexual image to kids who are still asexual.
This phenomenon is strongly connected to the new media such as television and internet; as a matter of fact, they rendered this kind of contest very popular, and made some bored parents believe that there is nothing wrong about playing with their children as if they were mini barbies.

http://www.truveo.com/noieemsshowbrittany-currans-19th-birthday-party/id/3667897941

(see the 40 first seconds of the video)

At an age at which our parents were playing with little cars and dolls, those little girls are probably dreaming of becoming the new Paris Hilton: They are trying to act as if they were some 20years old star, when they are obviously not more than 7years old.

Of course this aspect is just one of the numerous problems caused by the new media to the childhood. I am assuming that what made me happy as a child, being in the nature, playing with animals, walking around with my friends, will not make my children happy the same way it did to me. However I strongly believe that one can control the media in his house, and even if it is mean the absence of television or of computer, there is always a way to escape it.