The TV Dilemma

Like it or not, TV was, and still is, a huge part of american culture. I say “was”, because most of that culture seems to have dried right up, and what’s left isn’t very pretty. Sure, American Idol has some of it’s highest ratings ever, but is it still that great of a show? Most people don’t watch past the auditions anyways, and come on now, Hicks was a hack.

MTV-itis

One of the major problems that seems obvious when you’re just flipping through channels is that everything looks the same. Apparently, everyone thought that it was cool to copy MTV. This would’ve been great, if MTV still showed music videos at all. Unfortunately, all we’ve got now is stupid, Z-list celebrity based reality game shows on every freaking channel. What happened to entertainment? All we’ve got know is Jackass and Punk’d, a million times over.

Let’s get the Kids involved!

Growing up, Nickelodeon was my favorite TV station of all time. You just couldn’t beat the classics. Rocko’s Modern Life, The Angry Beavers, “Are you Afraid of the Dark?”, they were all great shows, and just edgy enough so that I didn’t understand half the jokes. Then Spongebob came along. And it was still good, right? By then I was starting to move on to other channels, but that little sponge guy sure could get into some..zany places. And then Nick went terminally insane.

Behold the travesty that is Teen Nick. Apparently, whoever owns Nick decided to become MTV, but for kids. Not kids, maybe, but tweens, the confused and helpless 12 year olds. So now we have a bunch of fake dramadeys, or whatever they’re calling themselves, filled with teen angst and…lot’s of magical guitar playing in crowded venues by people who cannot play the guitar. MTV, stay away from my Nick.

Maybe it needs a Joost?

Luckily, someone realized that TV currently sucks. Bad. So they made this thing called Joost (www.joost.com), which is going to (hopefully) make TV watchable again. Sure, the TV is magically on your computer thanks to some kinda alien technology or something, but it could work, right? I mean, I like good TV, so I would watch good TV. Hopefully, Joost will be that good TV, or so help me I’m giving the stuff up for good.

So Long, DRM

Over the last month or so, a classmate has taken to calling me “Socie”, due to my somewhat liberal stance on some major issues, and my comments, in passing, about the idea of universal health care. So yes, maybe I think the government could get a little more helpful, and take some of the load off. Something I just can’t stand though, is the huge amount of effort put into copyright management.

Directly Regulating my Music

For those not in the know, or who simply don’t care, DRM is a type of “copyright protection” that doesn’t allow you to do pretty much anything with your music. It’s especially bad for the legions of iPod fans, as the music bought through iTunes, at least currently, is embedded with DRM. I have nothing against iTunes, it’s a great peice of software with a great selection of music. But when that music is so locked down, so secure that you can’t even redownload it if your hard-drive fails, well, that just doesn’t work for me.

Help is on the way?

Luckily, the big-wigs are starting to take notice. Yahoo has begun, ever so slightly, to offer DRM-free music, and sites like emusic and Amie Street offer ipod-ready music in a handy, universal mp3 format. Another great thing to hear is that people are actually starting to buy cd’s again. I could never understand why people would spend so much money on a music collection that, for all intents and purposes, ceased to exist. And while I don’t think that vinyls are ever going to make a big comeback, here’s hoping the good old compact disk will still be around when the ipod isn’t.

 

 

 

Strong Isn’t the First Word that Comes to Mind…

Now, I’ve never been one to actually watch these kinds of things. I don’t even think I’m supposed to. These speeches aren’t addressed at me, they’re addressed at the people who actually think that Bush has a plan. AndI’m not saying that, in his mind, he doesn’t have a plan. It’s just that, up in front of all those cheering republicans and pouting democrats, his ideas just don’t seem to have any foundation.

Among the ideas brought up are temporary work permits for immigrants, and the movement towards alternative energies. This kind of talk might impress those poor people who had to stand up every 30 seconds to clap, but I don’t see how any of the things he mentioned could possible happen in the next ten years. I know the idea behind the State of the Union is to set plans in motion for the future, but the plans need support, they need a reasonable way to accomplish themselves. Otherwise, the next president is going to have a lot on his (or her) plate.

 

How Young is Too Young?

I’ve never been one to get into the whole “online-community” idea. None of my friends, the people I might actually feel like talking to, are technologically literate enough to actually use anything like Second Life, or even Myspace half of the time. And while I understand that, occasionaly, these communities can produce lasting friendships, among other things, I don’t think that interacting with fake “avatars” is the next step in social interaction.

Of course, if there’s a profit to be made, the product will eventually get the green-light. Heck, even when there isn’t a profit, there’s still often a new, “bigger and better” community just coming out. This seems to be the case with the BBC’s new project, which appears to be similair to Second Life, except for children.

I’m coming into the information age a little later in my life, but I can’t begin to understand how difficult it must be for this project’s target age group, the 7-12 year olds. Not only will they create a custom avatar, they’re also going to share content in an internet community, made up of (hopefully) other 7-12 year olds. Stop me if this sounds incredibly short-sighted.

Isn’t it important for kids to build actual relationships? To actually talk to another human being, face to face? Or are we living in an era where the share of information is simply too conceited, and the keyboard is ultimately mightier than the mouth? Apparently, this generation is on its way.