Is watching TV unethical?: Philosophy Forums

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Is watching TV unethical?

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Is watching TV unethical?

baden511
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Posted 10/31/09 - 09:44 AM: Subject: Is watching TV unethical?	#1
Let me put it like this: Isn’t TV great? Shouldn’t there be more of it? More trips into the pleasant time-warp of the ‘box’ are surely something we all need. And furthermore wouldn’t it be wonderful to learn that such passive enjoyment was actually good for us? We would then require only a TV, a sufficient number of channels, and a corresponding lack of other duties to live out our lives in the kind of care-free oblivion normally only associated with movie stars and corrupt politicians. We could at last let go of our inconvenient personalities and safely embalm ourselves in the fantasy world governments and advertisers have so benevolently prepared for us. Of course we would still need to eat, reproduce, defecate, and if we’re really unlucky - work, but these distractions could be minimized to the extent that they need not interfere too much with our viewing. Personally, I long for the time when the tube freed me of the nagging feeling that I should be doing something useful –but it’s a hard slog, fighting against creativity, physical fitness and mental acuity. Somehow these fiendish concepts keep me away from the TV. I doubt there’s a psychologist in the world that can help me. I haven’t seen a commercial in over six months. It’s hard to admit, but I am no longer willing to trust governments and advertisers with custodianship of my mental well-being. As such I am a virtual pariah in society and deservedly so. I have lost faith. But don’t waste your pity on me, my case is hopeless, whereas you may still have the chance to take TV watching to its ultimate conclusion. I only humbly request that you remember me when you’re gone.
"Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man." Moses (Numbers 31:17-18) "Do not harm little children" - Satanic Bible. Rule no.9 "To be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man pick'd out of ten thousand." - Hamlet

Wosret
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Posted 10/31/09 - 10:06 AM:	#2
baden511 wrote: Isn’t TV great? No... Shouldn’t there be more of it? Hell no! Hello, my name is Wosret, welcome to the 21 century. More trips into the pleasant time-warp of the ‘box’ are surely something we all need. Do you mean "we all" as in everyone over sixty? And furthermore wouldn’t it be wonderful to learn that such passive enjoyment was actually good for us? We would then require only a TV, a sufficient number of channels, and a corresponding lack of other duties to live out our lives in the kind of care-free oblivion normally only associated with movie stars and corrupt politicians. Yeah, watching other people do the stuff we never do, nor ever will. What fun. It's like watching someone eat a delicious meal while starving. We could at last let go of our inconvenient personalities and safely embalm ourselves in the fantasy world governments and advertisers have so benevolently prepared for us. Of course we would still need to eat, reproduce, defecate, and if we’re really unlucky - work, but these distractions could be minimized to the extent that they need not interfere too much with our viewing. If you reduce this to just fantasy in general, then I'm totally on the same page. Then again, fantasy is where I watch people do the things I can't. Personally, I long for the time when the tube freed me of the nagging feeling that I should be doing something useful –but it’s a hard slog, fighting against creativity, physical fitness and mental acuity. Somehow these fiendish concepts keep me away from the TV. I doubt there’s a psychologist in the world that can help me. I haven’t seen a commercial in over six months. It’s hard to admit, but I am no longer willing to trust governments and advertisers with custodianship of my mental well-being. As such I am a virtual pariah in society and deservedly so. I have lost faith. Yeah, I haven't watched TV since I discovered the internet -- besides for video games, and the occasional movie. But don’t waste your pity on me, my case is hopeless, whereas you may still have the chance to take TV watching to its ultimate conclusion. I only humbly request that you remember me when you’re gone. Or slide your way down the information tubes. Way more fun.
"If you've got any last words, say 'em now." - Nadie. "I am Horo the Wise." - Horo the Wise.

Hypothesis
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Posted 10/31/09 - 11:45 AM:	#3
I also personally do not watch much TV - and am able to satisfy all me TV needs through the internet. I can get what I want when I want. Also the fact that TV is passive - whereas on the internet has an element of interaction to it, has meant that some people prefer to spend their time like that.
We build too many walls and not enough bridges. - Newton

swstephe
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Posted 10/31/09 - 10:45 PM:	#4
I guess the OP is being sarcastic, but the wit is so dry it will be lost on most people. I've reached a point where I don't even own a TV, (it seems that the ability to generate interest in TV programs diminishes with age as attention spans get longer). I have no idea what programs people are watching and don't see any TV ads except at airports. I live in a tiny Islamic country where there are only 2 local channels, with very little of interest to me. I don't think there is anything inherently unethical about watching TV. It is a form of entertainment that demands a lot less work than reading or going somewhere to do something. But I'm afraid that it may be psychologically damaging. When I would go back to the US, I noticed an almost hypnotic effect. The way that emotions and political issues are pushed around I would feel so completely disconnected from the rest of the world and forced into such a narrow view of human relationships over materialism. Leaving was like waking up from a trance. I study a bit of psychology on the side. I noticed the troubling issue that TV characters often replace personal relationships. Some people know more about a character's life in a TV serial than in the lives of their own family members. They prefer black-and-white answers to prepackaged questions rather than the messy gray areas of real people and real issues. They prefer idealistic rhetoric to feeling anything. Everyone falls into this kind of trance because it is easy.
Ethics is the measuring of morality. Morality is the measuring of good. Good is the measuring of benefit. Benefit is the measure of values.

baden511
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Posted 11/01/09 - 06:45 PM:	#5
swstephe wrote: I guess the OP is being sarcastic, but the wit is so dry it will be lost on most people. I thought the satire was obvious, at least by the end. swstephe wrote: I don't think there is anything inherently unethical about watching TV. It is a form of entertainment that demands a lot less work than reading or going somewhere to do something. But I'm afraid that it may be psychologically damaging. When I would go back to the US, I noticed an almost hypnotic effect. The way that emotions and political issues are pushed around I would feel so completely disconnected from the rest of the world and forced into such a narrow view of human relationships over materialism. Leaving was like waking up from a trance. I study a bit of psychology on the side. I noticed the troubling issue that TV characters often replace personal relationships. Some people know more about a character's life in a TV serial than in the lives of their own family members. They prefer black-and-white answers to prepackaged questions rather than the messy gray areas of real people and real issues. They prefer idealistic rhetoric to feeling anything. Everyone falls into this kind of trance because it is easy. I think you hit the nail on the head here, more than once. However, I would say that if we agree that TV is psychologically and also socially damaging, there is a case for saying its unethical. I would contend that by watching TV you participate in a process of self-repression, the result of which is to condition you towards being an unthinking, uncreative and unimaginative individual. All modes of passive entertainment have this effect to some degree; we turn our minds off and willingly allow them to be infected by the thoughts, emotions and/or actions of others in the hope that we will learn something from them but TV is the apotheosis of passive entertainment and I contend that it teaches us nothing (or almost nothing) of value that could not be more usefully obtained from a less intrusive medium.
"Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man." Moses (Numbers 31:17-18) "Do not harm little children" - Satanic Bible. Rule no.9 "To be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man pick'd out of ten thousand." - Hamlet

Desidude666
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Posted 11/01/09 - 11:44 PM:	#6
It is. In fact, entertainment at the dramatized version of a fictional circumstance of a fictional character is as bad as it can get ethically. We find it entertaining if someone should face a particular predicament, should he reflect stupidity and make us laugh. In fact the television, despite it's obvious non-fictional information is still far too unethical as a system. It's a system of informing another, if you use it as a non-fictional mode of asymmetrical communication - however this asymmetry is what is unethical. So yes, it is very very unethical as a system of communication because it is asymmetrical. Edited by Desidude666 on 11/01/09 - 11:50 PM
What you are, you are by accident of birth; what I am, I am by myself. There are and will be a thousand princes; there is only one Beethoven. - Ludwig van Beethoven

swstephe
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Posted 11/02/09 - 01:17 AM:	#7
baden511 wrote: I think you hit the nail on the head here, more than once. However, I would say that if we agree that TV is psychologically and also socially damaging, there is a case for saying its unethical. You would imply that there were a single universal school of ethics in that case. There are things that affect psychology which are tolerated and socially acceptable -- antidepressants, caffeine and alcohol. TV could be the new "opiate of the masses". It tells us the economy is getting better, (and most people believe it), even as people lose jobs and businesses keep shutting down. When you deal with mass industrialization, keeping the populace under control may be a necessary evil. Also, not everyone can or wants to be creative and imaginative. I've argued in other threads that what we get from media is exactly what is wanted. Those forms of entertainment that say anything objectionable lose their market share and get pulled off the air. It is like an evolutionary system -- a system whereby a "product", (entertainment), is sold or given away to the public for the sole purpose of selling other products. Inflated sales means a more productive economy, so everyone benefits. Not all ethical systems are hurt by something psychologically damaging -- perhaps "natural" psychology isn't something worth preserving. It tends to be violent, racist, egotistical and selfish. In America, I noticed that many areas are nearly devoid of any cultural value anyway -- save whatever was on TV the night before. Much conversation and purpose in life is centered around trivial knowledge about the current popular shows so people can avoid discussion about real issues.
Ethics is the measuring of morality. Morality is the measuring of good. Good is the measuring of benefit. Benefit is the measure of values.

Minyun
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Posted 11/02/09 - 02:41 AM:	#8
If we call TV unethical, then we must also call any thing that has a personal agenda unethical to. Music perhaps? You cannot stop the rain from falling, but you can stop it from affecting you. That is to say, simply because something has a personal agenda does not mean it should be discarded, it should be examined, then according to you it should be decided to be either good/bad. TV will teach something more than you have thought about, it will teach you 'personality' and such it will teach you 'creativity', it will teach you who you are, what you like and what you don't like. If you are intelligent enough to see it. TV also provides a place where conflicting personal views don't matter. If I see a segment on oprah about something I dissagree with, I do not take the fight to her, I am not in her face causing conflict between us, I simply turn it off and go about my day. This allows me to think about what it was that I dissaggreed with, maybe even finding some resolution. Bards and courtjesters also had a personal agenda, and sometimes, people didn't quite agree with what they had said, violence would ensue. The box allows the jester to still get his personal ideas across without being beaten up for it. TV allows us understanding, if it weren't we would all be up in arms about our differeing views. What is unethical about TV however, is that it is a one way system. This is why the internet will win, but simply because something has a personal agenda does not mean it is unethical. The greatest shaper of nature, is friend.

Hypothesis
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Posted 11/02/09 - 10:20 AM:	#9
I wouldn't go as far as saying that TV is unstimulating because there are programmes out there that can spark intrigue and engage the mind of those watching it - but of course such programmes are by far outweighed the garbage that is generally on.
We build too many walls and not enough bridges. - Newton

jsidelko
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Posted 11/02/09 - 12:25 PM:	#10
There are times when it is both unethical and unreasonable to watch TV: (1) Watching TV while your house is burning down. (2) Watching TV while your neighbor is screaming for help. (3) Watching TV whike you are having bursts of uncontroable diarrhea. (4) Watching TV while your TV is broken. (5) Watching TV while you are having a heart attack. (6) Watching TV while your girlfriend is choking on a piece of candy. There maybe other reasons but I can't think of anymore right now!
thanatos

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