Since my mother-in-law’s mobility and mental status has deteriorated in the last couple of years, she’s been spending a lot of time sitting in front of the TV. Now I remember what it was made me give up TV altogether. It’s awful. There may be a show or two that catches my eye now and then, but without fail after a few minutes, I realize I’m being fed stuff that doesn’t interest me in the hope of selling me things I don’t want. However, I do hear the dialog and one thing is quite clear-and amusing.
In show after show, especially crime shows, the Internet is portrayed as a dangerous, crime-filled underworld, filled with perpetrators ready to jump through your computer to do all kinds of unspeakable things to you. Nearly every outlaw of every stripe has a (music of impending doom here) *web site* (roll of drums and fade to black). Most sting-operation shows use chat-rooms (double drum roll) to seduce perverts into a motel room, to be filmed and arrested. MySpace has been implicated in numerous news programs as a setting for the evil manipulation of children.
True-and false. Perpetrators of crime have always gone where their target is. The victims of Internet scams are the same people who fall prey to scams, the ignorant or the greedy. The villian willing to rip you off on a business deal has always been with us. And child-molesters have always operated where the children are.
There’s a very good reason for television writers to malign the Internet. More and more, people are understanding what a time-wasting, soul-sucking monstrosity the TV is. More than ever before, I hear people saying, “Oh, I don’t watch TV anymore” and hardly anyone blinks. A lot of people have almost given up on an entertainment medium that does nothing useful for them. In nearly everyone’s home is an interactive library with limitless possibilities. You can play a simple game or you can do the research to earn a Master’s Degree-and everything in between.
Now there’s Internet TV available to anyone with a high-speed connection, if that’s what you want. Oddly enough, the most popular shows so far are how-to shows. There are podcasts, audio and video, YouTube, and a host of other media I haven’t explored yet.
So that’s the reason commercial TV is making concerted effort to demonize the Internet; they have a lot to be afraid of. They’re almost obsolete.