Interactive realtime TV - Who thought TV could be this mutch fun?

national | miscellaneous | news report Wednesday May 01, 2002 16:29 by Irishvidhead

WHO THOUGHT TV COULD BE THIS MUTCH FUN?

television: opiate of the masses

T.V.
It satellite links
Our United States of Unconsciousness
Apathetic therapeutic and extremely addictive
The methadone metronome pumping out
150 channels 24 hours a day
You can flip through all of them
And still there's nothing worth watching.
Television, Drug of a Nation

Momma's gonna make all of your nightmares come true
Momma's gonna put all of her fears into you
Momma's gonna keep you right here under her wing
She won't let you fly but she might let you sing
Momma's gonna keep baby cozy and warm.
~~ Pink Floyd , Mother
The nearest analogy to the addictive power of television and the transformation of values that is wrought in the life of the heavy user is probably heroin.
~~ Terence McKenna , Food of the Gods
There's a tumor in the TV mouth
Burn it out before it grows.
~~ Marilyn Manson , Little Horn
Aright junkies, I know you don't like staring at long strands of motionless text, and I know it's a struggle for you to analyze and comprehend the meaning of complex sequences of words. But if you give me just a few minutes, I will let you in on a little secret that marketers and governments have been relying on for decades. That television you watch every day, your secret best friend, is an addictive opiate, and not only that, it's one of the most potent mind control devices ever produced. And I'm not just basing this on intuition. I have the neurological evidence to prove it.
Although the definitions are vague and somewhat misleading, the word "addiction" usually refers to a psychological or physical dependence on a particular experience that must be repeated in order for a person to be comfortable. Usually, we think about this in terms of chemical addiction, which occurs when the addict's chemical of choice reorganizes the nervous system so that it requires the presence of that chemical to operate smoothly.
Of course, not all addictions are chemical. Any behavior that leads to a pleasurable experience will be repeated , especially if that behavior requires little work. Psychologists call this pattern "positive reinforcement" . This is what we mean, technically speaking, by addiction. In this sense, television certainly fits into the category of an addictive agent.
When you watch TV, brain activity switches from the left to the right hemisphere. In fact, experiments conducted by researcher Herbert Krugman showed that while viewers are watching television, the right hemisphere is twice as active as the left, a neurological anomaly. The crossover from left to right releases a surge of the body's natural opiates: endorphins, which include beta-endorphins and enkephalins. Endorphins are structurally identical to opium and its derivatives (morphine, codeine, heroin, etc.). Activities that release endorphins (also called opioid peptides) are usually habit-forming (we rarely call them addictive). These include cracking knuckles, strenuous exercise, and orgasm. External opiates act on the same receptor sites (opioid receptors) as endorphins, so there is little difference between the two.

While AdBusters has their highly ineffectual TV Turnoff Week , I'd like to announce a campaign of my own. Starting next week, we will celebrate what I like to call TV Pawn-Off Week. I encourage you all to sell your televisions, and use the money to buy some books