Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 9, 1994 TAG: 9411170005
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK SPRAKER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
One editorial, "A Nation of Zombies," reports the findings of a newly published book on television viewing, informing us that "the average American family is glued to the tube seven hours a day," suggesting that we are becoming a nation of mindless zombies. It would seem to be true.
Imagine all those families out there, sitting in dark rooms, the bluish flicker of television light dancing on their corneas, seeping through cones and rods into their muddled brains that passively receive the destructive images of sex, violence and the latest material objects they cannot afford but must have. These zombies rise up from their sofas only to work (to pay the cable bill) and to consume (because that's what the tube tells them to do). Or, worse yet, they act out the abhorrent behavior they see on the screen, to the detriment of our society. This situation is, indeed, shocking. How have we let ourselves come to this?
In another commentary, "We are, to our harm, what we watch," Donella H. Meadows complains that the very passivity that television promotes seems to be the problem. She cries out: "We're doing no more than gripe about inane ads, violent movies, obscene songs, vitriolic talk shows and stupid sitcoms, though they degrade our minds, our families and our nation."
People who have minds that still function can't just stand by and let this degradation continue. We must do more than talk about the problem. However, the action we can take isn't clear. Both commentaries offer only one solution, turn off the television, which makes a lot of sense but seems too idealistic. Hey, I've invested good money in my 20-inch-stereo-color TV, my VCR, and my monthly cable bill. Degradation or not - I'm going to watch. There's got to be a better solution.
Perhaps if we look at the nature of zombies, we might find a more workable solution. Of course, everything I know about zombies comes from television, particularly watching George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" and its sequels. In these films, the only way to destroy the zombie is to blow its brains out, to turn off its brain, which may not seem directly applicable to our television problem but does tell us the part of the zombie we need to focus on: the brain.
According to the commentators, television turns us into zombies by taking control of our brains, making us passive receptacles of sounds and images, programming us to give up our will to the will of the medium; so if we can teach ourselves to control our brains while we watch, then we might be able to watch television without relinquishing our humanity or damaging our society quite as often.
Since television is here to stay and since the people whom the commentators are trying to reach with their just-turn-it-off message may not read the newspaper, making critical viewing of television part of the curriculum in our schools may lead us to at least a partial solution. This focus on education seems particularly warranted when we consider that children are probably the most susceptible to the corrupting influence of television.
If the statistics are true, children spend more time in front of their televisions than they do in the classroom. One commentator laments: "Think of all the harmful messages, about love and marriage, sex and violence, conflict and consumption, beamed from the vast wasteland into impressionable minds. Think of all the hours lost." But thinking about it, picturing those sweet little faces lit up by the ghastly light of this intellect-sucking machine, seeing the powerful attraction this machine has on young and old alike, I have to conclude that wishing it away or simply telling folks that they ought not to watch so much isn't getting us anywhere. I am afraid television will continue to have greater and greater impact on our society, whether we like it or not.
We need to train ourselves, and especially our children, to turn on our brains when we turn on the television, to think about the sounds and images we see and hear, to turn ourselves into engaged critics of the medium instead of being its passive receptacles. Attacking television more critically in our schools seems like a good place to start. We can study television, both programming and advertising, the way we study other media. For example, we ask our children to study Shakespeare, whose portrayals of "love and marriage, sex and violence, conflict and consumption" could be considered just as negative if viewed passively. However, we teach students to think critically about Shakespeare, to look at the meanings his work conveys, to consider the influence his work had on the culture of his time and vice-versa. Well, if Shakespeare were alive today, he'd be making TV movies or maybe even nighttime soap operas.
As a teacher, I've noticed that television, video and film have become widely accepted tools for disseminating information in the classroom, but teachers spend little or no time getting students to think about what they watch outside of school. While they work hard to help their students become critical-thinking human beings who can contribute to society, teachers seem nearly to ignore the medium that has the most impact on the way children think about and learn to see themselves in that society.
Although it would be wonderful if people would watch less television, spending more time on other activities that might be better for them and our society, we can't force people to turn it off or dictate what they can watch. We have to find practical alternatives to our television problem. Using our education system to teach people to turn on their brains when they watch might at least lessen some of the problems that many folks fear television causes.
Jack Spraker of Salem is an English instructor at Radford University.
by CNB