We're Drowning in Drivel
Nearly sixty years ago, Newton Minow, the newly-appointed chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), had this to say about the state of commercial television:
You will see a procession of game shows, formula comedies about totally unbelievable families, blood and thunder, mayhem, violence, sadism, murder, western bad men, western good men, private eyes, gangsters, more violence, and cartoons. And endlessly, commercials — many screaming, cajoling, and offending. And most of all, boredom. True, you’ll see a few things you will enjoy. But they will be very, very few. And if you think I exaggerate, I only ask you to try it.
That was May 9, 1961, when there were only three TV channels (ABC, CBS, and NBC) and no cable. Today there are a billion of channel-equivalents to choose from. There is plenty of quality entertainment available to almost anyone with a cell or Internet connection, but it is only a tiny signal that is lost in the background of white noise.
Roughly 30% of the planet is now interconnected in a way that has never been possible before. In 1991, there was only one website. Today there are over one billion of them. Most of them are totally irrelevant, misleading, time-consuming, but often entertaining. With one internet site for every seven people, we are drowning in drivel.
On May 10, 1996, Timothy Leary and Ken Kesey connected two Macs through the Internet and conducted a coast-to-coast video chat. They marveled at the plethora of possibilities that this new technology would bring and how it would forever change the world for the betterment of everyone. Kesey noted, "All of this equipment is allowing us to get out from under the thumb of the major broadcasting companies and build our own audience."
Leary agreed, "Empowering the ten-year-old kid. The ten-year-old kid has got the equipment of a network now." Leary predicted that one day, "Everybody would have the capacity to be in everybody's ear." Twenty days later, he passed away, believing in a modern utopia that would be forged from technology.
Timothy Leary's wish for ubiquitous communications has finally come to pass. Unfortunately, the utopia that he envisioned has not; the interconnectivity of one-third of the planet has spawned something else entirely: a modern Tower of Babel.
You will see a procession of game shows, formula comedies about totally unbelievable families, blood and thunder, mayhem, violence, sadism, murder, western bad men, western good men, private eyes, gangsters, more violence, and cartoons. And endlessly, commercials — many screaming, cajoling, and offending. And most of all, boredom. True, you’ll see a few things you will enjoy. But they will be very, very few. And if you think I exaggerate, I only ask you to try it.
That was May 9, 1961, when there were only three TV channels (ABC, CBS, and NBC) and no cable. Today there are a billion of channel-equivalents to choose from. There is plenty of quality entertainment available to almost anyone with a cell or Internet connection, but it is only a tiny signal that is lost in the background of white noise.
Roughly 30% of the planet is now interconnected in a way that has never been possible before. In 1991, there was only one website. Today there are over one billion of them. Most of them are totally irrelevant, misleading, time-consuming, but often entertaining. With one internet site for every seven people, we are drowning in drivel.
On May 10, 1996, Timothy Leary and Ken Kesey connected two Macs through the Internet and conducted a coast-to-coast video chat. They marveled at the plethora of possibilities that this new technology would bring and how it would forever change the world for the betterment of everyone. Kesey noted, "All of this equipment is allowing us to get out from under the thumb of the major broadcasting companies and build our own audience."
Leary agreed, "Empowering the ten-year-old kid. The ten-year-old kid has got the equipment of a network now." Leary predicted that one day, "Everybody would have the capacity to be in everybody's ear." Twenty days later, he passed away, believing in a modern utopia that would be forged from technology.
Timothy Leary's wish for ubiquitous communications has finally come to pass. Unfortunately, the utopia that he envisioned has not; the interconnectivity of one-third of the planet has spawned something else entirely: a modern Tower of Babel.
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