Eduvision
People are already mourning the death of television. Apparently, it’s all happening online now and that soon, the concepts of a structured schedule and a seasonal availability of programmes will be nothing more than outmoded ideas, comical to the next generation.
I’m not willing to let go yet. Television is my mentor.
It may have left me a clueless, gibbering idiot with few communication skills, but I can’t deny that it has taught me so much in return…
Thanks to Sesame Street, when I count in my head I have a tune that accompanies the numbers. What can give a child a better understanding and love for the subject of maths than a theme tune?
And all of those sleepless, insomnia-filled nights passed quickly and educationally with the aid of the BBC’s Learning Zone and Open University programmes. They are responsible for most of my knowledge on the subjects of art history, musical theory, and Adam Hart-Davis.
Last night I had a lesson on China’s largest restaurant. It seats five thousand people. That’s huge. The television taught me that too.
It also showed me that the chefs of this restaurant can perform a service so fast that the eel is still twitching and writhing when it is served to you – purely out of reflex, since its head and most of its insides have already been disposed of… I’m not exactly sure what the lesson was there, but still, it’s something that I would probably not have learned had I not been watching the box.
I’m interested (Ahh, still capable of interest, despite the odds) in knowing what you have gained form the television. Has it brought anything positive to your life?
That’s providing it hasn’t rendered you incapable of thought.
Philippa on
All the important stuff I’ve learned (besides math and English) was learned through the television. It has taught me so much more about human relationships than all the actual relationships I’ve had with humans ever could.
Plus, you can unplug the television without being arrested.
Un… plugged, you say? Is that like changing the channel somehow?
Television holds a special place in my heart, but I am - at my core - a Webhead. I love how readily available everything is on the ‘Net. I doubt that TV will ever truly, completely die, though. It’ll merely evolve, and that’s a good thing.
TV has taught me that…
- blowing things up can be educational.
- blowing things up can be fun
- blowing things up can be done for profit
Every day I question why I am not now in demolitions.
I often ask myself the same question.
I download most of the programs I want to watch.
I haven’t turned on my tv for over a month atleast.
The lessons that I have learnt/learned from tv are obtuse, unsymmetrical and obscure.
I learnt that ppl really do suck.
I learnt that ppl are really good.
I learnt that bad drama is normally the only drama.
I learnt that the viewing public would rather watch other ppl live their lives, either fictional or reality tv, then live their own.
Internet won’t kill the television anymore than television killed movies or movies killed the radio or radio killed books. It might not be as pervasive as it was in the past. The role it plays may change. But it isn’t dead. If anything, its growing MORE important.
But, don’t you remember?
Video killed the radio star.
oh-a-oh
They took the credit for your second symphony.
Rewritten by machine and new technology,
and now I understand the problems you can see.
It seems to be an exclusively male form of education… or at least as far as the comments go.
I wonder if it really does have some link to autism – a primarily male condition?
Adam! It’s the truth, but
you can’t say that out loud!
It’s like calling a cripple a
cripple. It’s socially tabu.
Now put your helmet back on
and be a good boy.
A computer requires active participation.
You sit up and use a keyboard.
Television is passive. Passive inactivity
always trumps anything that requires
effort. It’s the fact of human evolution.
“Passive inactivity always trumps anything that requires effort”
Seraphine’s first law of human thermo-dynamics.
It’s personal experience.
Ok, I learned a few things from television. But I haven’t watched it in years. With the Internet, I don’t even need to learn, I can just look it up, instantly, on demand!
Still, what I’ve learned form the Net is a billion folds more important than what I’ve learned from TV!
And when I have kids, I’d rather they learn from the net than TV!
ironically, the t.v. often directly leads me back to the printed page. or it leads me from the t.v. to the ‘net to the printed page. thanks to the t.v. i’ve found some of my favorite graphic novelists.
If anyone’s interested, the ILoveMyBaby . org news story seems to have taken this article from Biologist as it’s source.
http://www.mondediplofriends.org.uk/documents/sigman_voodoo1260.pdf
I’ve not owned a TV for the last… oh, four or five years now. I kind of enjoy it. And now that I live in the big city, if I want entertainment, I can go to plays, or concerts, or art museums! It’s great, and I can kid myself that I’m all cultured and sophisticated. What more could a boy ask?
“What more could a boy ask?”
It sounds like you need to get laid, Roo.
Television taught me that my parents will yell at me no matter what I do, so I may as well watch TV. At least then I can’t hear them complain. :p
http://www.shirky.com/herecomeseverybody/2008/04/looking-for-the-mouse.html
This is quite an interesting essay, the guy thinks we watch TV to distract ourselves from the changes in the world. I like what he says about the various collaborative projects online.
And thank you for that video, Adam. Quite entertaining.
That’s a great article, thanks.
I really liked the bit about the four-year old running around the back of the televison, looking for the mouse. The idea that entertainment should be passive alludes the youngsters these days…
Another way of looking at it is based on complexity – that is how many senses are required to get the full use out of a form of entertainmnet. This has slowly been expanding over the previous generations… radio = 1, television = 2, internet = 2 or 3 or 4, depending.
by my calculations, the next form of mass-media consumption will require the user to travel through both time and space to change the channel. Advertisers will love this.
SO I just noticed the little smiley face at the bottom of the site: I realize it’s been mentioned before, and I looked, but I couldn’t find what people were talking about! But now I have found it, and it makes me happy.
Also, I’m getting married tomorrow.
I think the advertising mostly hid it before. It’s sort of like internet archaeology… peel back the layers and you uncover a Devonian-era smiley face.
“Also, I’m getting married tomorrow.” – and we’ll be celebrating that fact here in about (checks time and counts on fingers) 8 hours, with a comic and everything.
*puts on best mockney-voice and attempts, like Dick van Dyke to sing… ‘Roo’s getting married in the morning…’*
gor… wuh-uh sigh’ ( I love D-van-D !!!!)
oops, disregard my post re:
what’s a boy to do. it sounds
like you have that covered,
although getting married
doesn’t have any guarantees
necessarily attached. hugs,
congratulations! best wishes!
oh MAN!
i dont think you understand the level of coincidence that this is!
just last night i heard that counting song on the RADIO
and i was in the car with some friends and we were discussing it and i was saying how it was always my favourite little sesame street thingy
bear in mind i have forgotten about this song for the last 10 years
and then today i come online and find THIS
you have made me a VERY happy girl
squee!