Cant Slow Down

When people are asked what is their most commonly used media outlet most would say the internet. And why not? The internet has just about everything you could want. If a connection is available you can find everything from web-comics, to cooking reviews. With so many different possibilities at our finger tips it’s no wonder so many people love the internet. But the power and popularity of the internet has only surfaced as the dominant media in a few short years. But in those few short years internet has really changed the world people are living and working in. One of the many areas changed by the internet is that the world has become a far faster place. In the days the came before the internet the main media was television. A mostly stationary media that tended to lock viewers in place. The majority of people got their news, entertainment, and in many cases advertisement done through television. Beings that a television is usually hard to carry around from place to place if one wanted to watch t.v you were gonna have to do it at home. But with new advances in internet and internet related technology people have broken the chains of television. No where has this become more obvious then with new developments in cell phones, more specifically the i-phone. With such technology people are now capable of accessing the internet from all over. They no longer rooted in place to receive their news and shows. Every last bit of information can readily be accessible on the go. People simply can simply do it all on the fly now. And this is a truly great leap forward. Imagine your lives a mere six years ago without all the awesome technologies of today. Frightening. I know.

Why cant kids be kids?

Remember when you were little, like 5-12, and you would run around with hardly a care in the world, watch cartoons, play silly little games with the neighborhood kids, get all excited when you got a brand new toy? What ever happened to that? I don’t know if this is just me being cynical or what, but it seems to me that children are growing up a hell of a lot faster in comparison to when i was a little kid. And that wasn’t even that long ago. I remember being a rosy-cheeked little squirt running around playing power rangers or dinosaurs with the local kids, waking up early on Saturday mornings to watch the cartoon line up, and just generally being a care free little kid. But, i look at children just a few years behind me and it seems like their being forced to grow up a lot faster than i ever did. I simply look at my little sister. Shes never really run around and played out side, never been one for playing with toys, and never been that carefree. Some might say that that’s just who she is, but i think that’s who shes been forced to be. As i have stated in a previous article the media has changed dramatically over the years. But in this sense the change is not from witty to dumb, now its from childhood to “grow up already”. I say this as i first look at the shows children are commonly watching. When i was little, (not that long ago mind you)what tv shows did kid like me frequent? Rugrats, Transformers, Pokemon, Animaniacs, Doug. Simple cartoons with simple child like premises that were fun for kids. What do i see kids commonly watching today? I Carly, Hannah Montana, Suite Life of Zack and Cody, Zoe 101, Drake and Josh and all other sorts of live action kid shows. I’m not arguing that live action is the problem here, it’s the premise of the shows. Whats are common topics on these shows? Young kids acting older than they are. Young kids constantly worrying about a multiple levels of problems that get them stresses, striving to get a cute bf/gf, and teaching life lessons that most of the children watching are probably too young to get. I’m not saying topics like these are taboo or shouldn’t be shown to kids, children should be aware of them, but it seems like the topics are being thrown at the kids. As a result kids seem to be worrying about problems of all sorts at the age of ten, that me and my friends didn’t worry about ill we were 15. Children are stressing out over school work, money, relationships, friendships, and all sorts of things. I don’t remember giving a rats ass about those things when i was ten. Whats more children now a days are also being further exposed to far more serious adult issues through tv. When i was little there were always certain shows that i wasnt allowed to watch, of course being a kid i tried my hardest to watch them anyway and i dont think i was adversely affected by that. But there doesnt seem to be anything a child isnt allowed to watch these days. Today it isnt uncommon to hear that a 9-year-old is watching South Park, Family Guy, or one of the various MTV celebrity dating shows(Rock of Love or that Flavor Flav show). Now im not saying that shows like South Park or Family Guy are bad shows, i love them, but who can honestly say that these shows are appropriate for children? All you really need to do is watch them and think about it. Yeah there funny too us, but we are age appropriate. Who out there would want there 10-year-old sister and her little friends to watch a “money shot” joke and then see them try and figure out what just happened. They, like the rest of us will figure it out when their older, and they, like us, will laugh at it. But for now i think kids should be allowed to just be kids.

Why you WILL pay Comcast

Most of us out there have heard many things in regards to “the evil of Comcast”, and lets face it, evil or not their going to be getting our money. Comcast not only provides “great T.V and internet, for one low price” but it also controls the ability for other companies to compete with it. So basically its gotten to a point where love it or hate it, you’re going to be dealing with it. This depressing fact comes from the unfortunate truth that most people dont know or trust any other cable or internet provider. Because after all who’s going to be there to compete with them? Verizon? Most likely not. Is it because Verizon is less effective? No, it’s because people are really lazy. Why bother switching to another service provider when you could just simply pay a little more. After all its a lot less work. The sad truth is that people would rather pay more money than have to switch to a provider who’s less controlling. Even after the newest wave of “digital transition” hit, more people are simply going to cave into Comcast, than are going to drop them as a provider. I know for a fact that my family is probably going to stick with Comcast and order a few more of their ever so “convenient” cable boxes than leave Comcast, and im sure most people out there are the same.

Smart humor is not “cool”

There are three shows that come to mind when you say animated comedy. Simpsons, South Park, and Family Guy. These are the big names and each show has made millions of dollars and entertained millions more over the years. But the progression of these shows reveals what i see as a rather depressing trend. A trend commonly referred to as stupid humor, jokes and comedy that are only funny because they are so stupid or ridiculous. Now there are certain instances where these are acceptable forms of humor and when timed right can be very funny. But when the show focuses mainly on stupid humor its just not that funny. Lets first look at The Simpsons. What people consider to be the first great adult aimed animated comedy show. Yes it had a lot of outrageous and quite frankly stupid moments, but lets face it, the majority of the show was very witty and could really make people think. Then South Park came out. Still could be very witty and smart, hell its aimed a lot at more satirical than anything else, but most of its plots and jokes centered around the more outrageous and stupid. But still it’s a very funny show. Then Family Guy came out. When it started it had wit and intelligence, but as the show progressed the dumber the humor became. It became more sex, gay, retard, and fart jokes. Basically it just catered to stupid humor and stopped caring about things like plot and intellect. And unfortunately enough this coincided with a current trend in humor the was geared towards stupid humor. This trend happened in children’s cartoons. If one is to look at children’s cartoons you can see the drop in intellect. Now what was on T.V back in the day, He-Man, Thudercats, Transformers. Awesome. What proceeded shows like these; Ren and Stimpy, Rockos Modern Life, Invader Zim. Again, awesome, but these were comedies. Wether or not they were intended for children doesn’t matter, the point is children watched them, and they had a lot of witty humor that really made you say, “Wait? Did they SERIOUSLY just do that?!?!” but at the same time the writers employed  a lot of quite frankly stupid humor. But these show were still very funny. But who proceeded them? One little yellow square, aka Spongebob. Now if you like Spongebob or not you have to admit that the humor on the show as really stupid and anything but smart. And that’s just it, as animated shows have progressed in time the humor has gotten dumber and dumber. Is it because these shows are being geared more towards children who wouldn’t understand smart humor? Are adult comedies like Family Guy dumb solely because the audience have been growing up on stupid humor shows? Or is society as a whole becoming dumber and thus not concerned with “smart” comedies? Time will only tell.

(I would also like the record to show that in spite of the views presented in this article I watch all the shows listed above. Except for Spongebob. I’m sorry but that shows just not funny.)

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