Everyday I go to work and stare at a screen for eight hours. I work in a field I enjoy with issues that interest me and people I like, but I still stare at a computer screen all day. I come home and then I usually sit in front of another computer screen for several hours, sometimes I might sit in front of the TV screen. I would like to do anything but stare at screens when I come home, but I feel compelled. My friends all come home and do the same. Sometimes I suggest we meet and do something not involving a screen but I'm very frequently met with opposition. Why go out when you have your window to the world at home? They tell me that it's too cold or too dark or too dangerous to go outside.
San Francisco is actually a pretty safe city, it's TV and movies and the internet that lead people to believe that the outside world is so perilous. They are continually exposed to sensationalized violence in the media, and in turn they are afraid to face the outside world and they spend more time at home absorbing more media. It's been said before, but we truly are a culture of fear. People always seem surprised that the censors come down hard on sex but graphic violence in the media is generally accepted, even on Television. It comes as no surprise to me. Violence keeps people afraid and keeps people at home, watching TV and movies and sitting on the computer. Sex might lead to social endeavors in the pursuit of a mate or engaging in an activity that generally involves no media consumption or financial activity.
I used to think that the internet was a free medium, but in 2007 it is not much more liberated than Television. The majority of people spend the majority of their time on the internet on a handful of sites owned by major moneyed interests: Google, Yahoo, Myspace, Facebook, Gmail, Hotmail, Livejournal, Friendster, you may think you are communicating with your friends and family through these mediums, but really the correspondence is just decoration, the icing on the cake of advertising you are being stuffed with against your will. The internet molds your brain in just the same way that the Television does; sure your activity online is slightly less passive then watching the tube. But honestly, do you spend most of your time on the internet contributing or looking to see what's out there? I believe most internet users spend most of their time online consuming and not creating. Even most bloggers, who are considered to be among the most prolific internet users, produce only one blog but read several on a daily basis. We are a culture taught to value consumption. In reading certain blogs, you may think you pick up some of the most interesting ideas from the most radical minds in the world. But to those who control the internet, and yes, there are people who control the internet, it doesn't matter what you think you pick up, it's what you don't know you've picked up that matters. Some advertisements are placed in very conspicuous ways, others are slipped in so subtly that you can't see them unless you are actively seeking them out, but the end result is the same. Your internet experience is enveloped with advertisements created by the sharpest marketing minds in the world, and whether you admit it or not, they are shaping your decisions.
If this wasn't the case, then there would be no money in the internet. Members of the owning class of our society would not be investing their money in the internet, but the money is there, in the billions. Even after the dotcom bubble has burst, the elite, the plutocrats, are pumping all of their money into online endeavors. TV ads aren't so valuable anymore; people TiVo and download their programs and buy them on DVD and find other ways of bypassing TV ads. Newspaper and magazine ads aren't hot anymore; nobody reads print these days. As has always been the case with Western civilizations, the owning class finds a way to make their fortune off of the working class; today's largest controlling mechanism is the media by way of television and the internet.
And we eat it up. We get our news from CNN and NBC and Google and Yahoo and BBC and Reuters and they tell us who we like and who we hate and we listen. We can't help it. They subdue is with prescription drugs and alcohol. When the drugs of youth wear off they barrage us with these anaesthetics to numb us and keep our sharp minds from forming critical thoughts or questioning the status quo. We accept our lives the way they are because we look forward to the beers at the end of the day or the pills tomorrow morning. I find that most of my friends are not able to enjoy themselves unless alcohol is involved.
I wonder if on our deathbeds, our entire generation will be affected with a shockwave of regret and remorse. We will have spent our whole lives sitting in front of screens; no stories to tell, our only ups and downs will be financial gains and losses. A generation with no unique thinkers; all raised by the same television shows and websites, imagine what our children's lives will be like.
Here's the part where I propose the solution, offer up the panacea for this sickness of the soul. Well, I have no cure. Our hole has been dug too deep. We were born into this life and there's no quick fix. We all live our lives as miniature pipelines for capital accumulation. We are conduits designed to keep the majority of the capital in the hands of minority. I will continue to go into work everyday and look at a computer all day. I will continue to be bombarded with subtle and not-so subtle advertisement at work and at home without my consent. I will continue to waste my life away because I don't know any better. If anyone knows the cure, my ears are open.
