# Not sure where I was going with this......



## AndyGaff (May 27, 2016)

Ok so firstly I'm not sure where I was going with this, but I'm going to post it anyway as I'm interested for feed back on structure and content......


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So I've got to ask, what has television come to?


Really think about it. Roll back a few years, ok more like 20 odd, when I was all but a young lad. When you got up early on a Saturday for cartoons, but not to early otherwise you got that sorry we're not broadcasting picture, a time when television shows where meaning full, educational and entertaining without using someone else's miss fortune. 
When we routed for the contestants to win, not for the poor individual to get it wrong so we could all laugh, when reality t.v involved shows like challenge Anika and everything was on the whole pre recorded.
When the news reported on current affairs and occasionally had something happy, not the fact this famous sports star got involved with a woman who wasn't their wife.


Everything has changed allot over the years, peoples morals have changed, the acceptance of things that would not of been politically correct has moved on. The violence we see is no longer censored and the language we hear is now as filthy as you'd expect children to get play on a Saturday afternoon.


You've got to remember we now live in a day and age where you can pick up anything you want 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Sundays are no longer a different day to the rest, not everything shuts at 5:30pm and not everything opens at 9am. We have 24 hour shops, supermarkets and petrol stations where you can pick up all your supplies when ever you need them.
Illegal substances are usually no more than 20mins around the corner. Young adults now require alcohol in order to have a good time. Children run a mock all over the place because we now have laws that prevent parents from being able to discipline them, and they all "know their rights" whatever that may mean.


This all leads to the original question what has television come to? I think there's still more that needs to be recapped on before we can really give this a proper answer. I don't expect people to like what I'm saying and allot of teenagers wouldn't even understand what I'm on about, after all they live in a very privileged age and don't really respect the things they have, let alone what having to work for them means. 
It's hard looking back as an adult now and not being one of those people to say "you don't know what growing up is" or "back when I was a kid" as everything points to these comments.


Allot of children and teenagers, even some young adults have no respect for authority these days, they laugh at the police, abuse teachers and even lie about adults behaviour towards them in order to get away with whatever they want to.
I mean I've been witness to a shopkeeper asking some youngsters to leave his store, them refusing to and the police getting involved for one of the young ladies(I use this term loosely) to accuse the poor old boy of trying to "touch" her, thankfully this time there was a witness in the shopkeepers defence, but what would happen next time?
While working for a retain chain I went out the back of the store for a brake to watch four young lads smash a window because they where bored, and when, because of my descriptions, they where caught one of the lads fathers tried to tell me I was telling stories and to revoke my statement. 
What example does this set?

We've even managed to glamorise bullying, even though we live in a society where we are more aware of its effects on people. You see it on the tv, in magazines, and in the news all the time, telling people what has happened, but also advising those who mean to hurt, how to carry it out.
It's a subject that is hard to report, I follow that, however there has to be a better way of going about it? A way to educate people that this isn't right, for bully's to experience the pain they deal out. But would this then be classed as a further form of bullying?
There is no way to actually ever stop this act.


The other thing we all forget, is how certain tv shows take less fortunate out there, offer them money and then film them for cheap laughs but call it educational. They expect us to accept this and not go against it as it's meant to be helping, and because they feel they're bigger than everything, take the Murdoch enterprise for example, they bully us as viewer. Telling us what to watch and when to watch it.
Television has found a way to use something we all claim to be against to entertain us and no one will even bat an eyelid at it now.


Things that started as a social experiment have now escalated out of control. To become something we can no longer live without. 


Films have now lost their suspense and work more towards the shock factor, how far can they push the viewer, how much damage they can do to the viewer, how much press they can generate from being outrageous.


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## afk4life (May 29, 2016)

That's why I try as much as possible to stick to the internet. It's in general a lot nicer place. The real world's gotten mean, and while profanity doesn't bother me at all, it did bother me to see MSNBC broadcasting live the other day and they weren't bleeping out everyone shouting "F--- Trump." Not because of the language, I don't care about that, it's just how have we got to this point? I always try to help people and now we've gotten to the point where it's basically easy for a fight to break out over nothing. If you look on Youtube for Give Back Films you'll see some good videos. And most of what I see on the internet is people trying to help each other. It's the complete opposite of what they show on TV.

As far as the police, I don't know anyone and there are probably very few people who have a good response to them. They harassed me nonstop as a teenager for literally no reason (I was as straight edge as they come) and I've literally been chased out of a town for being gay by them. And because everyone has a camera these days we now know just how bad a lot of them are. I don't think anyone laughs at the cops. They're terrified of them. I use cruise control in town because I don't want to get their attention. I've called the cops exactly twice and both times they were useless.

I see a lot more good from young people than bad, and a bit more than I do from older people. TV is theater. MSNBC is or was for liberals, Fox for conservatives, CNN doesn't quite know why it exists (or at least I don't). I watch TV if there's good shows, and I watch Rachel Maddow and sometimes Chris Hayes because they're extremely sharp and analytical people. But unless there's something good on, I stick to the internet. Not a day goes by where something real positive doesn't show up on my Tumblr or Twitter. And all that took was someone taking two minutes to post something nice even if it's as stupid as a jpeg that says "I love you" it's someone doing something nice, and it made my day better.

TV is just theater. And it's made arguably the biggest bully of them all into a megastar. It hasn't even really noticed the one person who is running that actually managed to back him down, either, because their paychecks would suffer. The only good thing I can say is most of the young people I've known rarely watch TV. 

I also don't agree that there isn't a lot excellent TV these days that doesn't rely on shock value. For most of its life, for example, Bates Motel hasn't done anything overtly shocking. It's just down to the actors and writers that the entire show is extremely uncomfortable to watch. Better Call Saul, I think where was exactly one moment that was maybe shocking but 90% of it is great writing and acting. The same can be said of a lot of other shows. Fargo, True Detective, hell even the Real O'Neills are great shows because of the writing and acting. There just are a lot of examples of good television and it's generally only if they are unfortunate enough to be on ABC they die an early death. Networks like FX and AMC consistently produce them.

So, yeah, there's a lot of good shows and it's down to us, the viewers, whether watch the good shows or give ratings to the sea of reality shows that are as good as non-alcoholic beer.


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## Tulip (Nov 7, 2016)

You've got some really interesting ideas here which I connect with immediately. Maybe because it seems we both grew up in the UK in the same era? I remember getting up early to watch Saturday morning TV and the test page when the channel wasn't broadcasting- hard to believe now, isn't it??  

I'm not sure what type of feedback you're after, but I was pulled away from the content a few times by spelling and grammar errors which was a real shame, because it distracted me from a really interesting commentary. 

ok not okay
'when television shows where meaning full'  were meaningful 
a lot not allot
There are commas where there should be semi colons and also where they are not needed at all
Anneka not Anika (okay, now I'm being picky but I did grow up in the era. I LOVED Challenge Anneka!!  

Apologies for being a grammar pedant: I can't help it. I make mistakes all the time and obsessively check things :tongue2:

It's a great piece. It raises some fabulously reminiscent and pertinent questions. Thanks for posting


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