According to 2013 data, over 99% of American households contain at least one television (65% of them have three or more), and every person in those households watches — on average — over 5 hours of television EVERY DAY. And the United States is not alone. Other countries have succumbed to the scourge of TV as well — with the citizens in Russia, Canada, Great Britain, Italy, Spain and Poland all averaging over 4 hours of television watched per day.

And it is not only television that is sucking the life out of our lives … As of last year our world now has 1.5 BILLION Facebook users, over 500 MILLION Twitter accounts, and over 1 BILLION unique Youtube visitors every month. All in all, over 4.5 BILLION people use their mobile devices to regularly access social media sites.

Yes, as if it wasn’t clear enough already, we humans have been sucked into cyberspace.

But what’s the big deal, you ask? What’s the harm in a few hours of “fun” every day? Well, if you can pull yourself away from your I-phone for the next few minutes, I’ll tell you …

*It is no longer a secret that the current mass media broadcasts an obscene amount of subtle misinformation and outright lies. Fox News is the most famous (and the most flagrant) of such perpetrators, and yet CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, BCC and even PBS are guilty as well. In essence, stories shared by major news sources are tainted by the money that finances them. So in essence, major news sources are not news sources at all. Pure & simple — they are propaganda machines; spewing forth stories designed to get you to fear the “enemy” of the moment and buy the coolest products of the day. Every now & then they will sprinkle in a factual story (or even — God forbid — an uplifting & inspirational one), and yet ninety-nine times out of every hundred times you turn on the boob-tube, you will end up listening to maliciously manipulated manure.

*It has also been conclusively proven that tuning in to mass media makes you prone to violence, both physical and verbal. There have been well over 4000 studies done related to this theme, and they conclusively show that watching television contributes to aggressive behavior, causes nightmares, and intensifies paranoia. Just as damaging (if not more so), watching violent TV programs has also been linked with having less compassion & empathy toward others in our everyday lives.

*And finally, it has also been clearly shown that engaging your mass media devices regularly makes you stupid. Indeed, research has now conclusively shown that when you are watching TV or staring into your laptop or I-phone, your higher brain regions shut down, and your brain activity shifts to its “lower”, more primitive regions – regions permanently cemented in a response mode of insecurity, worry, fear & “fight or flight”. Over time, watching electronic media causes your higher brain regions to atrophy due to lack of usage. Indeed, studies have shown that TV viewing among children leads to lower attention spans and poor brain development, and that mass media viewing among adults leads to lessened abilities to reason and focus on the tasks at hand (i.e. a lessened ability to appreciate life).

There is essentially no more doubt that mass media is a farce and an opiate; that it ruins the overall quality of our lives, that it makes us aggressive & anxious, and that it makes us susceptible to the corrupt, the callous and the sometimes cruel whims of those “in power”.

Fortunately there is a simple solution to this epidemic; a solution that is my tenth “last wish” for you all …

TURN OFF YOUR TELEVISIONS & PUT AWAY YOUR I-PHONES …
Do so RIGHT NOW, and then get out there and live your life!

Thank you.

“All I know is just what I read in the papers, and that is the alibi for my ignorance.” ~ Will Rogers

“People are sheep. TV is the shepherd.” ~ Jess C. Scott

“Don’t hate the media; become the media.” ~ Jello Biafra

 

Filed under: Eleven Last Wishes by Scaughdt