Internet Revolution …

                … or Internet Shit-fest? 

                This thing that media is doing to our young people is so grossly understated that I don’t even know what to do about it.  I watched the Teen Choice Awards tonight (On Demand, of course, because you never have to actually pay attention to when things are on anymore), and I was fundamentally disgusted.  Given a choice between five actors (or musicians, or whatever), the teens will choose the best looking, youngest person, regardless of any level of talent.  Appearance is king.

                So … teens are stupid?  Or … teens are quite likely to swallow whatever the media gives them without processing for quality?  When I was younger, Mtv became a thing, which was very cool, and my parents hated it.  Mtv now is a bag of shit – a bunch of “reality” tv shows that have nothing to do with most teenagers’ reality.  Prime example:  The Kardashian’s.  This is a family of dumbasses, but what they have done quite well is market themselves to a generation of other dumbasses.  People watch the Kardashian’s live their lives, because it’s more interesting than their own lives.  Why is more interesting?  Because people are sitting on their asses on the couch rather than doing something interesting.  Do you think that Jimi Hendrix (who taught himself to play guitar upside down and backwards because he was left-handed) sat around watching television all day?  What about Steve Jobs?  Did he watch television, or did he single-handedly create an empire of electronic devices that everyone in the world wants?  How about Steven Spielberg?  Did he just watch movies, or did he watch them and then historically make some of the most classic movies of all time?

                How can we make young people today understand that there is a fine line between being a bystander and participating in life?  It’s not enough to just watch other people live their lives on tv.  Those people on tv are living their lives.  You’re not.  I get the surface value of such shows, but I grew up in a time when television wasn’t a 24-hour-a-day activity.  At some point, I had to get off my ass and go live my life.  My mother forced me to do a variety of things which I bitched about at the time, but which ultimately made me a better person:  dance, guitar, piano.  They all created the basis for what I love and what I appreciate in others.  If we allow this next generation to just watch television and get their “values” from those stupid cunts on tv, then we get what we deserve:   a future full of shitty mediocrity.  They won’t even know how to think for themselves. 

                I just want people to be who they COULD be.  I am (finally) trying to be that person myself, and I sure as hell don’t want my children to get caught in the death-roll of tumbler, twitter, facebook, youtube, and everything-you-want On Demand.  Go fly a fucking kite.