| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Speech Therapy - Post-Racial | ||||
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I love Jon's points: Hate the speech? Watch Fox. Love the speech? Watch MSNBC. Want it made more complicated and over-analyzed than necessary? Watch CNN.
What I get from this clip is that you can choose your viewpoint, based on your viewpoint. I myself commit this sin...I cannot watch Fox "News" without feeling insulted, nor can I even type it without placing it within quotes.
When I was born there were 3 networks, and families sat around and watched TV together. Before that, families listened to radio. Before THAT, the newspaper was read. Within the confines of those previous technologies, print, radio and TV, there was still some semblance of community as we watched and listened or read together.
Not anymore; the explosion of choice among television channels means that we can tune out opposing viewpoints. I have serious concerns regarding the net positive benefits of so many choices. Research has shown that when people have more choices, they consume more, be it products or food. That's one of the reasons I like shopping at Wal-Mart...it makes me feel so thin (Question: Do Costco shoppers weigh less than Wal-Mart shoppers? Costco offers an array of products, but only 5-7 kinds of toothpaste whereas Wal-Mart offers many more varieties. My guess would be "Yes".).
We are over-utilizing our choice of political venues, and cutting off dialogue with each other.
Better yet, with the hyperbolic advances in computer technology, we don't even have to watch TV together; we can watch our favorite programs on our laptops, or handheld devices like the iPod, iPhone...and now the iPad.
Human beings are social animals, and we key off of signs we send one another, typically facial expressions and changes in vocal tones. In this way we learn to talk to one another. However, we are retarding that ability to communicate, or stymieing it from the beginning by giving our children handheld devices with which to "communicate".
We hamper our ability for discourse, and listen to people that believe the same things we do. Congress isn't gridlocked in a vacuum...we are gridlocking ourselves.
What I get from this clip is that you can choose your viewpoint, based on your viewpoint. I myself commit this sin...I cannot watch Fox "News" without feeling insulted, nor can I even type it without placing it within quotes.
When I was born there were 3 networks, and families sat around and watched TV together. Before that, families listened to radio. Before THAT, the newspaper was read. Within the confines of those previous technologies, print, radio and TV, there was still some semblance of community as we watched and listened or read together.
Not anymore; the explosion of choice among television channels means that we can tune out opposing viewpoints. I have serious concerns regarding the net positive benefits of so many choices. Research has shown that when people have more choices, they consume more, be it products or food. That's one of the reasons I like shopping at Wal-Mart...it makes me feel so thin (Question: Do Costco shoppers weigh less than Wal-Mart shoppers? Costco offers an array of products, but only 5-7 kinds of toothpaste whereas Wal-Mart offers many more varieties. My guess would be "Yes".).
We are over-utilizing our choice of political venues, and cutting off dialogue with each other.
Better yet, with the hyperbolic advances in computer technology, we don't even have to watch TV together; we can watch our favorite programs on our laptops, or handheld devices like the iPod, iPhone...and now the iPad.
Human beings are social animals, and we key off of signs we send one another, typically facial expressions and changes in vocal tones. In this way we learn to talk to one another. However, we are retarding that ability to communicate, or stymieing it from the beginning by giving our children handheld devices with which to "communicate".
We hamper our ability for discourse, and listen to people that believe the same things we do. Congress isn't gridlocked in a vacuum...we are gridlocking ourselves.
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