Why, you may ask would anyone spend hours (sometimes 12 at a time) in front of a TV screen playing video games?

Pretty much cause at the time ‘I didn’t have anything better to do’

That’s what I loved about video games; they were a time filler. I never had to wonder “what am I going to do today to pass the time?” I always know that if I was bored I could always turn on the TV and fill the time by solving puzzles in far off worlds or destroy enemies, or just drive around blowing shit up.

And this is what college took away from me.

Along with studying and homework, the idea of spending this much time in front of a machine that bought me no real accomplishment, other than in the form of bragging rights to others who played the same game, seemed somehow wrong. I found that I just couldn’t do it anymore; I would try to play a game but would end up feeling bad about it in the end. It is the same kind of feeling that you get when you want something really sweet and bad for you; then you eat it and afterwards just end up feeling bad about it and guilty.

This is when I realized that video games, like many other things, can be like an addiction. Now that I have gotten further and further away from playing, I can see even more through watching my friends that still play, that it really can be an addiction. Like any other addiction, it is brought forth to fill the void of boredom for many people with a lot of time on their hands.

But as I see it from the outside, after tearing myself away from it, playing video games, especially the way some people play, can be very hazardous to the whole socialization process and can end up making it hard for people to live adequately in the real world; instead choosing to spend all their time and energy living in these new artificial ones.

I can see why. I was there. It is way more interesting and fulfilling to be killing monsters and finishing complicated levels while getting the girl and being the hero in these artificial worlds than it is to be getting bad grades and rejected by girls in the real world. Video games, especially these new all-engaging games like World of Warcraft, give people the chance to feel empowered and to bring a sense of accomplishment along with allowing the individual to escape any real world hindrance that would make it more difficult to socialize with others; even if it is all based on artificial accomplishments.

Where I start to worry is when I see it affecting people I know and care about.

The friend who keeps working at his menial job rather than going back to school to do what he really wants to do; instead deciding to spend all his time and money on more video games and ‘things that go well with playing’.

The brother that hurt his arm and was on disability so decided to waste some time playing World of Warcraft (WOW), but has since gotten better and still spends a good portion of everyday playing and paying for an artificial reality.

The truth is though that I can’t say if this is bad or good. It really comes down to what people decide to spend their time doing. Some people watch TV, some read, some work, and some play video games. It really comes down to what makes you happy. I just hope that the people that do play these games ‘chronically’ are not doing so at the expense of activities that could make them happier in the long run.

Again I was one of the examples I gave for people I know. I used to get off work at 1 am and go to the local convenience store, pick up a slurpee and some ‘munchies’ and go home and play Tony Hawk Proskater or Golden Eye til 6 in the morning. I would fall asleep, wake up and play some more until it was time to go back to work.

It was fun. It had its time. But just like anything else it has to be put aside in order to do other things. Unfortunately some never do and really it has less to do with video games and more to do with a whole lifestyle choice. So maybe I’m blaming the wrong thing, trying to find a scapegoat (wow, writing really is therapy HA), either way, it is really a choice, one that I apparently made (NO video games). But to each their own.

Good gaming and I hope I didn’t offend anyone. That was not my intention.

It just goes to show that no matter how many people preach about equality and how things are getting better for minorities within our society, it is really only a cover over the real problems that still exist. We like to say that we are no longer discriminatory against minorities within our society but we have really just become more covert in our discrimination. This can be seen in the portrayal of these individuals in the most connecting of all our resources; mass media.

Gay people are overly gay while still showing little sign of ‘actual’ homosexual qualities, whatever those might be. African Americans are shown in over the top gestures that seem absurd but also propagate this exact type of gesturing in essence creating a reality through the presentation of an illusion. When it comes to minority groups in media programming they are either exaggerated in their form or underused and dispensable to the subject matter altogether.

Why is it when we are supposed to be so much more enlightened than people of past generations are we still giving into this obvious stereotyping of individuals that we know do not and would not act like this in real life? Why also are we still making it possible for this type of stereotyping to take real form by continuously subjecting our impressionable youth to this hyper-discriminatory behavior that we use for comedy or drama entertainment? We are only, once again, distorting reality for a generation that already has enough problems discerning fantasy from reality.

We are raising a generation that will still have the idea of homosexuals as either ‘flaming’ gay or asexual and that still believe in the separation of races primarily due to the depiction of different ethnicities as exaggerated in all their behavior as to simply show segregation through behavior differences and that is just not honki dori in my eyes

I know I don’t want my children to think of a gangster every time he sees an African American walking down the street, nor do I want him to have such a narrow view of what homosexuality is about. The truth is that if we don’t stop looking at people through the eyes of the writers and producers of the shows that give us more interaction with different types of people we are never going to be able to get past our difference to see our similarities.

But don’t be wary.

Advertisers and suppliers have envisioned the solution for the separateness and loneliness we feel in trying to obtain what we think is true happiness and it is brought to you in the form of monetarily produced relationships. You want to find the happiness you have been looking for but haven’t had the time to do due to pressure at work in your pursuit of the unattainable. Well then just take out your credit card and for $39.99 a minute you too can have a shallow, superficial relationship with someone who really could care less about you.

The need for social approval through the acquisition of goods has gotten so out of hand that we have had to turn to ingenuous forms of relationships to acquire what can no longer be obtained naturally. Advertisers have built a reality that can truly never be obtained; fore if it was attainable their jobs would become obsolete. The job of the advertiser in a consumer culture is to constantly re-envision new ideas of what should be strived for. Just as the consumer is able to acquire that which they believe will bring them happiness, the rules of the game change and a new objective is created. This can be seen in a rudimentary form when thinking of styles, be it clothing, cars, music (pretty much culture in general). There is a constant change in what is desirable so to keep the consumer culture going. Once the majority has what is felt as the materials to obtain happiness, the suppliers change what is desirable, making people acquire the ‘new’ objects of desirability.

Sut talks about how we as a majority have to change our way of thinking in order to stop this slow downward spiral we are on towards oblivion. But how do we change everything we are raised to believe. He states that if we are to save this planet from ultimate destruction then we have to begin now. If so I have to say we should say our goodbyes because there is no way we are going to get a society so built on greed, even to the point that many would sell their own family out for upward mobility, to give up their own felt sense of entitlement to what they have been promised since before they could comprehend the messages being pushed on them.

The one thing about music that makes it good AND bad is it individuality to the person that listens to it; especially young people. While news is what informs and directs adults in their daily life, music is what does this for adolescence. If you speak to most teens, the majority of then would say that they could live without Tv, but would never be able to live without music. Along with encompassing the peoples musical life , the music they listen to also has an effect on the rest of their life. No other form of media has the overall effect that music has on a person. The music that a person listens to also effects the way in which they act and dress and show themselves as an individual. This can easily be seen in the different attire that people wear and the way that styles are now identified by the music that inspires them: Goth, Emo, Gangsta, Grunge, Punk.

I know even for myself, I could never live without music. If you see me walking around, you would be hardpressed to see me without earphones in at all times when not in class. This comes from many years of having to listen to people’s absurd conversations on the bus and in the halls and finally getting fed up with it to a point where I need to have headphones in to get through the day without blowing someone’s head off.

The night started off well enough. It was even a surprise to find out that the night I decided to go to the theatre was also cheap movie night and I ended up only having to pay $5.50 to see a movie. Even for the worst movie in the theatre, $5.50 was cheap enough for me to not feel bad about spending it on what would turn out to be what I had expected, only a little worse. The movie was Ghost Rider and it was truly the worst comic book movie I have seen (not including Cat-woman and Electra). But alas we are not here to talk about the movie per-say but rather the movie going experience.

The night I went to the theatre was not opening night, nor was it to a movie that had opened on the weekend prior. I went to see a movie that had been out for two weeks already on a night when most people do not go to the movie theatre. Why, you may ask, would I go on that day when trying to discuss the merits of seeing a movie at a theatre rather than seeing it at home?Because that’s the way I like to see movies; with the comforts of home.  

The movie theatre must have had only, at most, 15 people in it. And truthfully that is the way I like to see my movies. Leave the opening night show for the real fans who think it is imperative to see the movie before anybody else. I know people like this; they always see the movie opening day, or earlier, and then have to give you their two cents on every movie.

I got my movie ticket and proceeded to the concession stand to purchase my big bag o’ popcorn and my gallon o’ cola. When going to a movie such as this the only way to do it is to gurge on junk food while taking in a junk food equivalent of a movie. The butter was dripping and the choice of popcorn shakers just reminded me that after the butter was gone the joy of eating movie popcorn had just begun. The trick is to take in your own small ziploc bag and pour some of the seasoning in it for when the butter on top is all gone so you can still pour it on after without having to leave your seat. So now it was time to find the perfect seat.

I walked into the movie theatre and I was the first person there. I had the choice of whatever seat I desired. It made me feel like the theatre was rented out just for myself. My own private screening. I closely examined the view as I walked up the aisle and found the row that was the perfect distance away from the screen. I then proceeded to find the seat that was precisely in the middle of the screen. I sat down in one seat and realized I was a little off center and so two seats down was the perfect vantage point for the viewing of the proceeding film. It was great.

And then it happened.

I saw him come around the corner. I had a feeling it was going to happen. It didn’t matter who it was. It could have been the star of the movie. At that moment the dream of having the theatre all to myself was quickly quelled. I had to face the truth. I was going to have to share the theatre with other people.

On the way in the other person decided to make a joke about the lack of people in the theatre. Nice to see that even in a place that consists of all the people sitting in the same direction looking up at a big screen in total darkness, the chance to meet someone and have a good laugh is never lost. This joke ended up breaking the ice and I found myself having a nice conversation with this other patron of the movie theatre until the movie started. Nothing too deep or meaningful in anyway. It was more just a way to pass the time that would otherwise be wasted looking at the movie trivia that is inevitably plastered on the screen for an hour before the movie starts; only having a five minute playtime that constantly repeats.

 The movie started and from that point on the only noise I could hear was the sound of popcorn being enjoyed and ice being eaten (yes, by me). The movie went as I thought it would, fun origin story, then progressively got worse and ended with horrible puns and unnecessary (yet not unappreciated) body shots of the main female character.

As the credits started everyone got up and slowly exited their seats; off to wherever the road took them from there. For me it was time to go home, and not with the sense that I had once again been ripped off by Hollywood once again. I know what I was in for and in the end I got exactly what I had expected. The movie was mediocre and the popcorn a little stale, but I wouldn’t trade it for a night at home for anything (other than if I somehow got enough money to afford a private viewing room in my own home).

The movie theatre is a place where you can really get lost within the movie. Something you just don’t get from watching it on the television. Maybe its the all engrossing nature of the theatre or the uninterrupted sequence, but for whatever reason, the movie theatre is always going to be the top choice when deciding to see a movie. As for Mr. Smith, If you don’t like the crowd, pick a new day. I found that it is the best of both worlds; the big screen and popcorn along with the comfort of home.

Really nothing better. Enjoy the movies, I certainly do.

With this excerpt from his novel ‘Manufacturing Consent’ he again brings another subject to light concerning the way in which the news that is reported on and consumed by the audience is, more often then not, a very different thing then the actual factual event that took place.

We are always given one way of looking at the events that took place; the way the new broadcaster and the reporters feel is the truly the way it happened. I am not saying that what we are given is the end result of huge line of alterations to the true story (but it wouldn’t be far from the truth, in some cases).  As anyone knows when given a story there are always many sides to the story and if you ask a group of people individually what they saw, you will undoubtedly get a slightly different story from each individual (the news broadcast is nothing more than a retelling of the story in the eyes of the people that heard it first and it will always be different depending on who they heard it form and how they were informed). That being said it would be ignorant to think that there is no influence as to what is selectively reported on. The major company in the end has the choice of what to air and, out of all the stories, what they feel is the most important topic to discuss, and this choice can be directly linked to the views and beliefs of those with vested interest in not only the public interests at heart but also in other more self-indulgent interests as well.

What is funny is that when it comes to some stories the news broadcasters are so ready to pounce on the story without getting all the facts straight, which can lead to the news company looking like idiots (unfortunate though that these things are all easily forgotten by most people and the news company are rarely held accountable for their misinformation, When a news provider does misinform, the erroneous story is on the first page and the retraction is on the last page mixed in with the classified and the personals).

Just think about election night news, that spoke up early in saying thatAl Gore had won the election in 2000, only to have to go back and say to all those individuals that they were mistaken (They weren’t, but a judge said they were) and what does that say about the news we are taking in when many news companies can get something as big as the election results wrong and it becomes a funny tidbit the next day. How many people went to bed thinking one thing only to wake up the next day to completely different result.

In the case of the Venezuelan president, there are not as many other media to bring the full story to the masses in which the limited amount of companies that do report on this type of information have the ability to show the story from only one vantage point and in this case all people know is what is available to them.

I kinda went of topic, but what I am trying to say is that, as with anything else, we have to think critically about everything we take in (even the news) because we are never told to whole story, we are only told the side that these reporters know, be it truth or fabrication.

So when you think about the information you get from these news broadcasters, take it as one reporter is fond of saying:

“And that’s the way I saw it” (notice he didn’t say that’s the way it happened)

How many people do you know that actually think that the stuff that occurs on My Sweet Sixteen is what it is really like for most children. I keep hearing how the show is horrible because it gives children the expectation of that way of life being normal only to find out it is far from reality.

Let us also remember that television for most of us is nothing more than an entertainment device that is there to fill up the unused hours of the day that would otherwise be spent reading or sleeeping, or whatever the hell people who don’t watch Tv do. The rest of the day is spent in the REAL WORLD (not the fake real world on Tv , that show sucks). TO think that people believe some others are so unintelligent as to not realize what is real and what is fake is beyond me .

Sitting a little too high on your pedestal are we.

The truth is that whether or not people use television for information or escapism they also know that what they see is not the way it really is ( I am really counterpointing myself from earlier blog posts, but whatever, we live, we learn, we grow as people, I have done so , you do it too)

The fun part in what is produced and what is consumed is the way in which each individual and the sub-set of people that they speak about in the article may actually see the produced material and the way they consume and interpret what is given to them

I like to show two ads here

One that is the produced material given to the audience

Scary huh, With loads of meaning for you to take in

And the the message the audience decided to interpret and feed back to others

More what I got from the first one but funny

Any Questions ??????? HAHAHAHA

I’ve been a huge silverchair fan ever since they first came out and have been there all the way, even with small departure and collaboration id , the dissociatives, which was also a great album.

Anyways heres their new song, and an old one from the dissociatives!!!!!!

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

What you get when you buy Ad-busters is a false sense of superiority and a whole in your wallet. Why should a magazine that hates the idea of mass-consumerism be the most expensive one on the shelf? It might be said that the magazine costs more to buy due to the fact that there are no advertisers to share some of the cost for producing the magazine, but if that was the case and the editors really were looking out for the costumer in trying to lower the rate of consumption, then why is it printed on high-gloss paper (I’m sure you could get away with printing it on something more environmentally as well as economically friendly paper).

The truth is that Ad-busters is really doing nothing more than selling the idea of counter-culture. It can be seen when speaking to some of the long-time readers. You can hear it in their voice. The distain they have for almost everything. The felt sense of superiority they feel they have come to deserve due to the thought enlightened state of a moral compass. It really sickened me when I thought about the fact that for so long I was also one of these ‘self-righteous little morons’. If you take a real look at the contents of the book you will start to notice that the way it is put together is meant to distract from the real issues they ultimately glaze over

I mean you seriously have to be ADD to be able to read the magazine. Every page is plastered with images that are overly grotesque and unnecessarily in your face. If this magazine is supposed to inform, then why the hell is it made so fucking hard to read. It really became nothing more than anti-America propaganda, and even for someone such as me, who sees too many problems with the American government and way of life (and that means the Canadian way of life as well, don’t get me started on the way we as Canadians feel ourselves to be so much better than our American counter-parts, Total bullshit.) it started to seem like nothing more than a bitch magazine ( a whole lot of bitching and complaining with no real constructive solutions for any of the issues they complained about).

One of the main concepts brought up quite frequently is the idea of the “no-shopping days”, which is the editors trying to get readers to think about not shopping on certain days and taking a look at the rate of consumption in America. This seems all right in theory and really does do what they want it to do. It shocks people, especially people that are not readers of the magazine. It makes people aware of the fact that we as a society consume way more than is necessary to maintain a moderate way-of-life. But when the problem arises is when the “no-shopping days” turn into the “no-shopping season”.

While the lack of consumption may be great for the editors of this magazine (I’m sure not poor, starving people), it would have the biggest impact on the people who were just trying to do what they thought was the right thing to do ( in the end realizing that they really were just easily manipulated and coerced). Who exactly is going to feel the lack of consumption the most? Is it going to be the big wigs that people are feeling are getting rich off the capitalist era or is it going to be the people in the low income jobs that are produced by this high consumption, high convenience necessary society “WE” have created..
So when you see the Ad-busters magazine at your local news-stand, think twice before you eagerly pick it up and shell out almost $10 bucks. Unless you’re a masochist and want to be reminded of how shitty the world can be ( but alas there is no real solution, not in that book anyways) or you like to display it in your living room to get the admiration of those that will find it spectacular that you also have joined the club. The club that is only for those that hate how consumerism and capitalism bring down the hard-working people, but can also afford to spend what the hard-working people make in a two-hour span on a flashy magazine.

Remember you can’t produce Counter-consumption without consumption
(So have fun buying your ten dollar magazine while your at the store picking up your $1.50 sugar water )