Assignment 5 Danielle Dutton

My TV experience has always been limited. My family has never had Cable or any of the other fancy subscriptions you can get for more channels or movies or any of that. We’ve never even had Netflix. All I’ve had all my life is standard satellite. And youtube, I guess. That being said, all I really watch on TV are reality shows on the big networks like NBC and ABC, and a bunch of shows from the ‘70s because for some reason there are at least three satellite channels dedicated to only showing shows my parents watched when they were growing up. As a result, I understand a majority of TV references made by people three times my age and hardly any made by my friends, so that’s always interesting.

However, since I don’t have a very wide range of shows available to me, I don’t watch a copious amount of TV, and half the time it’s on I use it solely for background noise. But even though I don’t, I don’t think watching a fair amount of TV is bad in and of itself. It’s entertaining. People like to be entertained. Voila, symbiotic relationship. It may be true that people could more wisely put the time they spend watching TV to more productive ends, but everyone needs a break now and again. If people enjoy TV and have time to watch it, then let them have their fun.

But the fact that their fun is watching the Emmy’s and not the Nobel Prizes does say something about American society, but I think it relates all the way back to America’s founding. Since before even 1776, the American Dream has prompted people to seek out success and fortune, to work hard to make their name known, to strive for riches and fame. And who has those things? Celebrities. Scientists, philanthropists, political activists, Nobel Prize winners, they all work hard for discovery or for an issue bigger than themselves. The American Dream is selfish. And I believe that’s a problem, but not a new one by any stretch of the imagination.