Adorno’s points are mirrored by Huxley

“A society, most of whose members spend a great deal of their time not on the spot, not here and now and in the calculable future, but somewhere else, in the irrelevant other worlds of sport and soap opera, of mythology and metaphysical phantasy, will find it hard to resist the encroachments of those who would manipulate and control it”
Aldous Huxley (1959)

When reading the article done by Adorno, I couldn’t help but think of the ways in which his views are similiar to that of Aldous Huxley in “Brave New World: Revisited”, with Adorno taking a way more in depth approach. Among the interesting statements in the article , the one that stood out for me the most was about how the subjects took the morality of the authorized way more so than even the authorities themselves.

It can be said to be so true in the way that viewers now take the myths of television and hold them to be the truth (not looking down on those that do). It can be seen by talking to people, especially those of younger age of which are far more impressionable that they believe what they see on television and movies to be the true. They do not look at the way in which these people on television are living and see the set or the sell of this lifestyle. They believe this to be the truth. Not to say that they are duped by the show or movie into believing everything that is there, its not even the big things that really affect people it is the small things that you really don’t think about that affect the way people will react in a certain similiar situation. This has also been perpecuated by the over-exaggeration of lifestyles on some shows trying to make other shows seem more real. This is seen when people act in a movie within the movie. They will act in a way that makes the rest of the movie seem more real.

This false reality being built on television and movies does not just change the way in which viewers see their lives but also changes the way in which alot of the people in these productions live their real lives as well (with them even saying that they have bought into the hype). The way they see their lives becomes the way that it is seen through the camera. With these people actually believing that this is the way in which they should live (which is hard to understand seeing as they should be the ones that know firsthand that the way they are portrayed on television is not the way it actually is).

When you talk about the people being influenced by the media they watch, the idea of acting in a certain way due to something that you saw on Tv or just finding the morals and values of fictional people to be right has a great impact on the way you live your own live (especially for people that do not have any other example to go off of). This gives the people that make these programs an extreme amount of power. For not only do the people passively watch these programs, they also take a part of the program, and the people in it, away with them once the television is turned off. So if wanted, all the producers of this show would have to do is make a certain character that is liked by viewers and that they relate to and have him do something that they feel is in their best interest and it may be copied by the viewers (eg. have him/her say a certain band is good, a certain clothing company is good and people will see it to be more relatable to themselves and they do in fact do these things). Who hasn’t seen a show and noticed that a person wears the exact same clothing line all the time. People who relate to this person are more likely to go out and purchase these items.

People have become smart to the idea of commercials and now more often than not just ignore them which has made it so that now marketers are putting advertisements into the shows themselves, ingeniously hiding them from the viewer, sneaking them in and making it seem more like just a part of the show than what it really is; an advertisement. This can be seen quite evidently with music now. If you watch alot of Tv shows aimed at teenagers, the shows now implant upcoming releases of albums on their shows and then sell them afterwards on their websites, in a way making the show an advertisement for the music. A music video with more meaning for the veiwer who already relates to the characters.

SO now not only can you watch the show but you can also listen to the sam emusic as the characters and dress the same way as the characters, in a way making the whole show nothing more than an advertisement for a ton of other products.

 You probably can’t tell but all these people are wearing clothes worn by one of the characters on the OC