Ours is the first culture in history to have moved inside media; we have largely replaced direct contact with people and nature for simulated versions on TV and the Internet, sponsored and created by corporations. Now it's happening globally, with grave effects on cultural diversity, democracy, and our physical and mental health. The mass madia is everywhere; you cannot escape it. "How does it affect me?" you may ask.
Let me count the ways! In America we teenagers have never been fatter or spent less meaningful time with adults or our friends, and the slack is made up in sitting mesmerized in front of screens watching images flit in front of us hour after hour. So it was when we were babies, so it is today. And so we end up more isolated, less socially adjusted, and our bodies just get softer and flabbier. Furthermore, these computers and other machines have done little to improve our intellects. Everyone talks about our "unlimited access to information over the Internet," but students today score abominably on reading and writing tests - many young people are virtually illiterate, despite having spent years and years in school with computers and countless other educational technologies! This leads one to ask the following question: What good does it do to have access to unlimited information and powerful technologies, when young people today have no words and little ability to think or communicate effectively? Mankind used to brag about its literature, poetry, and appreciation of beauty - whether it be fine words, a creative idea, or a gorgeous sunset or sunrise. Now we are tool wielding creatures who prefer to think in circuitry and stay home all plugged in, our faces illuminated by media mages emanating from electronic appliances. "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction," claimed Albert Einstein. Instead of embracing more materialism and technology, we should move towards simplicity and goodness.
And instead of ensconcing ourselves in front of telescreens absorbed in a virtual world of media, young people should go into the real world. They should play sports and spend time with friends and do all the things previous generations of young people have done in the real world, as opposed to hiding in this fake new "virtual world" manufactured and marketed to us by those who want to make money off us rather than help us arrive at adulthood healthy, happy, and wise. And it is not only within our culture that this rot is to be seen; it is happening all around the world. Look at all the rot on television and on the Internet! The entertainment executives would put mud in cans and sell it to us, if they thought we would buy it. It is not good for us. Marketers and corporations don't care about you or the products they market; they want you to buy, they want to make money off you. And if you are young, naive, and easily influenced - a child, a teenager, the most vulnerable segment of the population - then they especially want you. My fellow teenagers I say to you: Don't give them the satisfaction.
Nobody is forcing you to watch the screen. Turn it off and tune it out. Don't let the media tell you what to think or how to live. Refuse to be a follower. Take control of your own future.
Questions to keep in mind:
