re: #809 Sharmuta

I was thinking last night about the media, and how they’re really perception shapers. That’s a lot of influence to allow an entity to have in your life. I think those that allow their reality to be shaped too much by these people have no idea to what extent they’ve allowed themselves to be manipulated. But it’s another cost of freedom- they’re allowed to waste their time in front of the boob tube, just as I think I’d rather not allow them to influence me to that extent.

Do I care if that makes me “out of the loop” with “average” people? Not really.

I killed my TV for that reason. (And because I was too cheep to pay for cable.)

I knew that it had an influence on me and on others. I was surprised to discover just how much. It is something that I think that only those without a TV can really notice.

Another thought that was disturbing me at the time was noticing how people would arrange the furniture in their homes so that the TV was the focal point of almost every room that one was in. It struck me as being a little creepy, as if the TV had become a kind of an alter or a god.