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what's next

twittering marriage proposals?
ilusomch bby plz marryme

IT'S THE FUTURE

I am not thrilled to think about this.

I never liked that site...

The first line is so correct. Just watching the Colbert report, it becomes a bit uncomfortable how many times Colbert has to use an 'actual' product to joke about.. "Dr. Pepper" or.. "Sprite".. or "Budweiser".. and you think, "Was that necessary? Or did they need the money to stay on air?"

Response to the first paragraph: I feel like you're right. People who belong to a Gucci bag club, people who like Colbert and hate Stewart, people who own Hybrid cars, etc.

Your second paragraph haunts me. I wonder how true it is probably because I fear it is true.. :/ And even if people do care to relate to each other, the problems you describe are causing an inability to relate to one another. How can you meet people and learn about yourself when you have to spend most of your time working? How can you learn how to feel for people when most of your work is to keep your business going?

What's the answer to this poison? A change to the corrupted American culture to one that's more european? Respect for the workforce? :/

One of the best journals on FA, today.. :/

there is no solution for the foreseeable future, as I see it, which is why it was an open musing. As individuals I would hope that each person evaluates their lifestyle and adjusts it accordingly to fit with a balanced and sustainable outlook.

TO be honest, I think what you said is the wisest solution.
No universal solution and value system could work for an entire society, which is why some of us are aware of this decay.
A person having strong integrity and introspection could allow a true renaissance of individualism.. hm? :O

I don't like individualism at the expense of our society, so when using words like individualism I try to be careful not to conjure up randian-style fantasies that seem to think society is better when we all think for ourselves first and foremost, while ignoring our responsibilities to be good citizens of our modern society :V

That's why I'm saying that if you can't try and promote good social habits (if you're in a position to do so) then at least as an individual you can be a good role-model and not make things worse by your actions (or inactions, for that matter)

You know, I wonder if the problem is a lack of self-discipline that plagues all of our culture, if not humanity. It's so much easier to distract one's self and ignore your hopelessness than to do something about it.

this is true but I'm not sure kids understand this; Gen Y was being raised by TV and videogames before they started bringing up the kids born around the turn of the century and beyond. I was raised with TV and videogames, and they're one of the things that filled large parts of my childhood. Growing up I wanted to be a game developer, cause that's what made me happy when there was nothing else, and remained constant whereas friends did not (our family moved around a lot, and one of the places was subversively hostile to outsiders).

Now as an adult I realize I'm part of the distraction machine, so to speak, as we research the most successful techniques to marketing our product available. It is not merely filling a gap to make other people happy as a temporary distraction, but involves psychological profiling into both target demographics and human nature as a whole, much more than I realized was going on consciously at the surface. Part of the secret to doing it successfully is realizing how to exploit human nature in a way that others haven't been able to do so before you if the market's already flooded and you don't have a way to catch or dominate the demo's attention span through traditional methods. Especially using the latest in social networking. It all ties down to providing the distractions, surrogate companionship and surrogate society which would normally be taken up by reality and typical real-life interactions.

And, I'm not so sure whether there should be a responsibility borne by those of us in various entertainment industries to make sure our products are wholesome and that we aren't teaching the wrong sorts of lessons to our kids, or feeding an unhealthy addiction for adults. Enjoyment's all one thing, but like I said, it's gotta be part of a balanced and sustainable lifestyle.

Since I sincerely doubt that sort of corporate citizenship exists on that level, and doubt the entertainment industry as a whole can be reformed in such a way to promote that positive influence within our lifetimes (since the problem has now been inbred several generations), it is up to us as individuals to be a positive influence on ourselves, and not turn into crack monkeys or cave dwellers or vegetables, or what-have-you, and be more aware of the influence marketing has on all aspects of our lives, even those which may appear tangential or unaffected by the constant psychological conditioning we've been exposed to all our lives.

You make some great points here but you're missing out on a possible solution to this problem. As entertainment and networking becomes more and more sophisticated it may be inevitable that it goes full circle and we begin meaningful interaction with each other once again.

One of the main reasons this has become as bad as it is, is not simply due to how the workforce is treated. Or how much leisure time we have. But ultimately it's because of money. Over the past 100+ years the earning power relative to inflation of the general public has plummeted, despite the cost to manufacture also plummeting. As a result people have been forced to work longer and harder for less and less. This in turn results in not having enough time to properly interact with family and friends and the need for rapid fulfillment. People gravitate to mindless entertainment because they simply do not have enough time to do something meaningful.

The sad truth is that our generation may be the first to never be able to retire. I just don't think people can stand the squeeze that much longer.

I can understand these points, and I've talked to lots of people about the cost of living before with the same kinds of points you make, but in this journal I was specifically trying to focus on a bigger picture than whether or not Gen Y can scrounge enough money for themselves to retire gracefully. Specifically, as part of the system of entertainment we construct for people I feel like there is a missing angle which isn't covered enough about the ethical responsibilities the entertainment sector shares with society as being comprised of the same sorts of individuals that in turn are their consumers.

Usually, people just go from the whole lame "for the children" angle because they're being overly protective, but I think there is a real threat to society as a whole from the sort of complacency bred into it when it comes to how we decide to spend our free time. How we decide to distract ourselves says so much about how we live the other parts of our life, and not just how we live our life effects how we tend to distract ourselves. One way of the two-way street seems to get much less attention paid to it.

Not saying that they share equal responsibilities (since I believe that individual responsibility is an important driving factor in social progress), but that there is a certain type of social responsibility to entertainment consumerism that doesn't seem to exist right now which has created a generation of shallow individuals. As I continued to muse about it, it didn't appear to just be generation Z, but generation Y and generation X before it that started the seeds which rolled the snowballs of this sort of shallow consumerism down the hill whereby it can no longer be stopped.

I am not saying that the end result is destitute, but that we need to see what we've become, because we cannot GO back, but we can LOOK back and see how we can all be better individuals (and perhaps a better society) going forward.

I personally see the rise of entertainment as a symptom rather than a cause. However you may be interested in reading Wen-Tzu as Lao-Tzu spends a great deal of time describing this kind of social degeneration and its root causes.

I just read your profile. Have you programmed games for a living also? I loved games as a kid growing up, and now, I work on them. I think as adults, we have become part of the distraction machine. We're that bigger brother now, and I think we gotta start setting a good example :x

Seriously... I agree here.
I cant remember the last time i heard someone brag about talent; its always been the crap they have.

Suddenly, images of The Matrix and Idiocracy and its unintentional sequel, Wall-E come to mind...

I've been watching this decay a teeny bit longer (being a gen X'er and all), and it's one of the reasons I don't want to breed. TV rotted everyone's brain, like my parents foresaw. :(
But seriously, this new "instant gratification" society is destroying itself. Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I'm seeing it. I'm kinda glad I could never afford the latest gadgets and stuff as they came out, now. 'cause I'm not "plugged in" like everyone else.

pff, according to the interwebs you're still technically gen Y, but at the very beginning of it! We're both pretty much 80s kids even if you're just a little bit older :V


They are destroying themselves but I would hope that all the people who are parents can see what's really going on and get the right messages, instead of trying to protect their kids from the bogeyman like they always seem to do (and the media is such a horrible enabler for this poor behavior)

bah, this was supposed to be a reply to  kattywampus

I am saving money in preparation for the inevitable Mad Max scenario (in which money will be worthless, haha, joke's on me!)

At this point I fully intend to live like a grad student for the rest of my life, because to be honest I can't see how more possessions = more happiness. I realize that happiness, on a national scale, is correlated with GDP, but I suspect that's more of a question of financial security than material abundance.

Behold the power of greed and coveting.



And it's going at us like swarm of hornets.

Wait. Santa's not real??

I define myself by my hat. Does that make me a bad person?


PS: For serious I know what you're getting at, it's very frustrating. I could give examples but they are work related and bleh. ._.

Haven't we been defining ourselves by our shiny trinkets since the 50's? What was the term.. Keeping up with the Joneses?

Either way, I concur, but it's really not... news. It's on the tip of everyone's tongue-least those with half a brain. we can only hope that those trapped into the downward spiral of individualism, or lack thereof, decide that martyrdom is the cool hip new thing, and after the massive war to follow, those who could -think- for themselves come out of their bunkers to start anew :|

screw generation Y, I'm a Gen-X'er. things were F'ed up long before gen-Y came along. My generation os getting ready to start considering Retirement

that that scares the ever loving panties off me. most people my generation still believe Bill Clinton didn't have sex with that woman, Ms. Lewinski... to think that the NEXT screwed up generation os going have control over what retirement home I get stuck into makes me wanna break out all of my legal firearms and take over a hooters resturant with 10,000 rounds of ammo, a 50 pack of condoms, and a 5 gallon bucket of lube

no, I won't survive, but I'll go out with a smile at least.

by the time Generation Y's kids enter the workforce, I fear for my country, and my rear-end... because if I live that long I'm sure one way or another the government is going to be bending me over >.<

well ya can't expect the government to do right when all the people in the government were taught all the wrong lessons about good governance !

You know, that's an interesting point as well... this is the first time I think that a plague of ignorance has actually transcended class. The poor, middle class and the rich are all subject to this blitz.

if you like that, read this document http://www.deliberatedumbingdown.com/

there's a link there for the PDF file somewhere

that's why we should return to ASSBEATING

Spanking works people

...or the simple fact that of what Clinton did with Lewinski was of no consequence to the political battlefield and was only used as a distraction from important issues to try and decay his legacy. Some of the 'leaders" of the crowd trying to point how wrong it was for him to have affairs while in power were themselves caught in sex scandals of their own.

honestly I could give a crap about most of that... My problem with it was he LIED to the American people about it, and he LIED under oath in a court deposition.

a 50 year old guy scoring a 23 year old chick? that was cool. lying about it, and "cheating" on his wife (without permission) Totally uncool.

but the point I was making was he lied about, and some people STILL believe him
just like most of those same people believe in Man Made Global Warming

So didn't any President we've had in office, so what? The thing is he lied about something that still has no consequence to the ability to serve as president and shouldn't have been investigated in the first place, Their investigation wasted millions of tax payer money for political points.

*blinks* if you do not think we need to hold our elected officials to a higher standard

then I REALLY hope your not voting come next election, because I fear enough for the fate of this country as it is...

He LIED to the people who Employed Him
investigation or no, he should have been removed from office for that alone if nothing else.

EVERY president lies to their people, are you just being purposefully clueless to make some sort of pointless argument against a democratic president? Bush and many in his administration were caught in lies almost everytime they would state something publicly, yet they weren't thrown out of office.

NOW I understand... your a Democrat

no wonder your defending them

at this point, trying to convince you otherwise is pointless because you are married to your party right or wrong.

I'm an independent. I support the Tea Parties. the last Republican I supported 100% was Ronald Reagan.

no offense, but I see no reason to continue this conversation with you any more only because you do not have an open mind about politics

will you two please not go down that tangent here. 80% of people in a recent poll claim they are independents, but as we know by voting trends only 10% of people are actually swing voters. While there was validity to having an independent investigation into the president's dealings with the Whitewater scandal, there shouldn't be any denying that it really was a distraction that continued to be propagated by special interests who thought everything was fair game in terms of de-legitimizing the Clinton administration.

I hate to say this, but I had a huge argument with one of the posters below about this very same bullshit on a previous journal (and it killed all other conversations on it). Beyond Whitewater, the impeachment and the whole "string of suspicious deaths" rumor mill was all put into the public discourse through funding from the Arkansas Project. This stuff's been fair game for the Republicans for years (read up on the Leadership Institute in whichever publication you respect the most), but of course none of this exonerates lying under oath and perjuring yourself.

The point really is that the purpose was back then to kick up as much mud as possible, truth be damned, and see what stuck. "Fair Game" was a typical GOP strategy and attack vector at the time, and as long as it continued to work for them without consequences, they would continue to do it. At that time, the president squirmed under pressure and he ended up doing something wrong as it pertained to the investigation. So, he was impeached, but he wasn't thrown out of office or forced to resign.

There are many apologists for Clinton's behavior, but the fact of the matter is that even after being impeached, the senate acquitted him. The original (non-perjury) impeachment was a shameful time in American politics which I would hope not be repeated in the future, as it made a mockery of the good nature of our system. Only 10 Republicans voted with the Democrats at that time to accquit the president, a few of which are still in the Senate today. I wish their convictions today were stronger so as to stand up against injustices, but it seems that time has worn down too many of senators, and all of them are part of the establishment.

I posted this reply to you instead of kngru because I agree with you holding our presidents to higher standards, and would hope that you understand that while Clinton wasn't perfect, what was done to him was atrocious and marked the beginning of a really dark time for our country when partisanship became more important than running the country. I am not a Clinton apologist, I just figured you'd be more receptive to understanding what I'm saying here without me "preaching to the choir".

Oh, one last thing... as for the tea parties, most of them are now extensions of the GOP. That's really a shame. I think the last shred of legitimacy for their actual independence went down the toilet when they started running primary challengers against Ron Paul for his anti-war stance amongst other things. Corporate funding aside, many tea parties' ideological standpoints with their leadership seem to have settled squarely in the neoconservative arena. I don't think we'll be seeing any sane liberals joining the tea parties anytime soon, if they ever were going to.

I had not heard that the GOP had co-opted the tea party movement. I was under the impression they were deliberately NOT aligning to either party so that the majority of Americans could come together on the basics we all agree on, and to hell with the self-serving party system we have right now.
well, there were a couple of "tea party" hopefuls that were just political hacks digging for votes, but other than that *shrugs*

honestly, I had nothing more to say to kngru, so I will politely refuse to continue the conversation as per your request.

Presidents Should be held to a higher standard, including G.W., but I am not going to start that conversation either, as everyone and his brothers three friends will point out what all Bush did wrong.

I like to think that I lead by example, but I'm not perfect. I try to take the high road on most things, but I vehemently oppose any attacks against our country and our founding principals. Sure, more than a few things had to be fixed, the founding fathers were not perfect either. Woman's Suffrage, Civil Rights, and now Gender Equality.

I am surprised you hadn't heard about the tea party stuff until now, but then again I'm waist-deep in liberal media digests where it's been a point of contention for nearly a year now. One of the early organized sponsors for "half" of the tea-party movement (that is to say, one of the 2 large tea party organizations before the movement began to splinter) was FreedomWorks, an organization chaired by Dick Armey, a rather well-known GOP operative and former Texas congressman. Its popular promotion in conservative media circles was encouraged by the GOP at first to basically put up an easy smokescreen for anti-obama astroturfing campaigns, but once populist anger from conservatives started to turn on Republicans over certain issues, support for the movement in typical conservative media was toned down significantly. (Conservative intellectual media not included, as GOP involvement was always known to be strategic astroturfing in these circles, even if not always explicitly stated.)

Someone who over the last year has had exemplary coverage on the various tea party movements has been Rachel Maddow, whose show I recommend you check out at least a couple times no matter where you are on the political spectrum. There isn't as much coverage as there used to be since the splintering of the majority of the movement from the corporate-funded 527 non-profit groups, but she still covers some very interesting topics with regards to intra-conservative GOP-vs-Tea-Party politics, including primary challengers, "spoilers", and GOP reaction to pressure from this constituency.

Anyway, I hope I haven't got too off-topic here :)

oh and by the way, I hope not to deplore the actions of all individual tea party supporters or sympathizers with the same brush. The movement began and will end with decisively populist overtones, but was promoted to national awareness by special interests who wished to use the movement for political gain and to disguise their operations under a populist cloak. The notions of an individual in this movement can be noble and even well-informed in nature (although I personally find that to be the exception rather than the rule), but while it was still politically advantageous for them, the GOP wrapped themselves up in the movement and utilized it to try and obstruct progressive reforms as part of their election strategy. (It is unfortunately looking like it's going to bite them in the face, since populist anger is not inherently partisan in nature.)

i suppose i'm "generation y?"

i can't identify with people my own age. i don't use twitter or facebook or myspace. i don't memorize internet memes or quote things. basically my biggest sources of information are npr and my feed reader (the latter of which i mainly use to keep up-to-date on hobbies).

not everyone can be defined by a "generation" label, even if 90% of people can be.

You know what, Nobu? I think I have the answer, and nobody's going to like it.

People need to suffer.

When children are given everything they want, insulated from even the remotest possibility that things might go badly for them, do they sympathize with their fellow man? No, no they don't. Never, until they suffer themselves. People in the US are given a bill of goods that is wrong and hurtful to our very well-being. And that promise is that you can always be happy. There's always something around the corner that can make you feel better. There should never be a reason to be sad, because happy is all around you, right? But things don't make us feel better. Relief makes us feel better. If you work hard and toil for decent meals you don't often get to eat, those meals are delicious. If you walk on hard ground all day, even a worn bed is a heavenly cloud by the time you reach it.

Now, I'm sounding a bit Doctor Doom at the moment, so let me back up and say that I'm not proposing everybody be turned into coal miners. What I am saying is that we need to understand that sadness and suffering makes life worth living. If you maintain a false happiness that's constantly refilled through regurgitated media, it's a very fragile emotive state that could be destroyed by having something truly awful happen. If your only source of grief is the easily turned-off news, which already reports things in such a detached manner that it's almost not real... you don't ever appreciate why people are always trying to make things better- because things suck.

Suffering makes more thoughtful people.

I'd like to make people think.

I would say "endure hardship" but it is an inevitable consequence of the path we are going down anyway, so I would just hope that the challenges we face can be overcome and we learn the right lessons from them.

I think this is the only thing that made sense in this journal.

Mmm exactly what i think to be honest, since i can now say it freely not afraid im the only one... :/

I'm honestly beginning to thing you're deliberately trolling. Are you serious? "I'm worried about these here kids." "Too much product placement with popular shows and characters." "We're too materialistic."

Ok,here's the thing. People have ALWAYS identified with simplistic materialism based bullshit. Every goddamn one. Hippies had their VW vans and tie dye and drugs and "free love". These were worn as symbols of their "group". You think anyone who showed up at Woodstock in a suit with a "Support our troops" sign would've been welcome? Dream on.

Clothing has always been seen as a sign of social standing and allegiance. And people,being social creatures,will always go for status symbols. Be it a physical thing like the latest hot car or something more meta like the harder achievements in video games. In summation,you do the same damn thing in your own way. Even the ones who do something to prove they're not conformist. You don't conform by doing shit people think is fucking weird,not by doing "socially accepted rebellion". If you're not a complete social outcast,odds are,you're a conformist in some way to some group. And honestly,given the choice between being an outcast or a conformist to something you're ok with,which really is the lesser of 2 evils?

So you don't like the product placement in a show. Why? Colbert is a performer just like anyone else. That you put him on this pedestal where he's "too good" to do something is just stupid. Do you really think he's some paragon of truth? That he's altruistic and good and should never do anything to soil it? He's a fucking comic who's doing a fucking show. He's got bills to pay and who doesn't like it when comics make fun of well known products? I can't be the only one who thinks it's lame when a show uses "generic soda". Kind of removes it from reality for me. Non-branded products make it hard to believe a story takes place in the modern US of A. This whole "This person shouldn't do product placement or commercials" bullshit is just cutting them off from a paycheck. It's one thing if it's a bad product. It's another when it's the standard bullshit you're going to buy anyway.

So stop idolizing people you see on TV. If you enjoy the show,watch it. If not,don't. But don't try to apply morality to someone making a buck and being funny at the same time.

To sum up,the concerns you have now are the same concerns that EVERY generation has about the next. Look up an old show called "Wait Til Your Father Gets Home". It's an old cartoon about a dad trying to raise his kids. If you watch closely,you'll find that most of the problems they had then? They're still around. And guess what else? Most of the "kids" they were so worried about then? They're your fucking grandparents now. We're still here. So guess what! They apparently did ok. So will these kids. If you raised yours right,they're not going to stick you in the old folks home for people we don't care about.

So calm your ass down.

What's your point? I have every right to openly muse on my own journal. For the meantime, while I haven't blocked you, I should let you know that you're not going to find much of an audience for your ramblings here unless you bring them with you. I'm not much for oversimplified, off-topic lectures. My primary concern is for increasing ethical citizenship amongst the populace, and this journal and the subsequent


So as to not continue another pointless exchange with you like I did the last time (that killed nearly 2 weeks of my productivity, so I sure hope you had less important things to do than I did), I will block you from posting in the future if you attempt to engage in an argument this time around. I was merely giving some open thoughts to people who like to think about such things (you know, people who don't already "know everything").

If you want to be able to keep posting on my account, please bear in mind that the next few things you say here might be the last ones anyone else will get to see. Thanks.

*with this journal and the subsequent ones which will inevitably come down the line. God, where am I floating off to these days.

That's fair,I don't think you're really trying to understand what I'm saying anyway. I think that's ultimately what causes the social rifts in most nations is when you start building up an "us against them" mentality and stop bothering to simply understand where the other guy is coming from. So let's see if I can't make this a little easier to understand for you.

Every generation worries about the next. It has been so since pretty much the beginning. Your parents worry about you,you will,should you have kids,worry about your children. Now think about that. Do your parents need to worry about you? You might not think so. But bare in mind why you worry so much about these kids coming up. You see,as you got older,you gained something called "life experience". This experience has taught you that there are a lot of stupid things you're taught as a kid that simply don't work in real life. And now you look at these kids,who don't have that life experience yet,and find that they hold to stupid ideals. This is much the same way in which I view you. Unlike you,however,I try to be part of that life experience and help the stupid kids of the world to be just a little bit smarter. Of course,convinced they already have their heads on straight,they often refuse to listen.

And I find it additionally hilarious that Nort there talks about learning to overcome adversity while at the same time,you both don't seem to know how to deal with me. It just adds to it that all you have to do is try to understand what I'm saying and there wouldn't be any adversity,only disagreement. Which is something of a metaphor for the modern world,if'n ya' ask me.

As for blocking me,well,I just find that funny too. You talk about "kids" ignoring problems rather than dealing with them and learning to connect to your follow human beings,yet here you are threatening to block me based solely on the fact I don't agree with you. Pot,kettle,black. Even better,you think that not talking to you would be some kind of punishment. :p

Here's a movie I'd like you to see. Called Sullivan's Travels.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sullivan%27s_Travels

It's a good movie. And makes a point that sometimes,what you really need in life is a good laugh,even if it's cheap and shallow.

Every day,people go into their jobs,work as hard as they must,and come home to relax. I know you love to believe this consists solely of sitting on the couch and watching TV,but the truth is,most people like to go for walks in the park and go hiking when they can and just get out and meet their fellow man and just hang. Even video games are becoming less and less a solitary activity. Why? Because people want to meet other people. As I said,humans are social creatures. Which is why social problems often lead to depression.

But I can tell you probably don't care enough to bother to even try to understand any of this or how it relates to your post. I think that's largely because you don't want to. But lets see how this piece goes down and take it from there.

I don't disagree with the sentiment of an "us vs. them" mentality causing wedges which make people quibble over stuff they disagree on vs. the obvious basic things they agree on. However, there's a difference between a frank exchange of views and a mentality that you seem to hold that for you to agree with people, they have to accept everything you say as right, and not hold any disagreements towards you without accepting somehow implicitly that they are wrong. How you hold your opinions is not conducive to progress, because even with the things people may agree with you on, you insist on pushing forth opinions that many will disagree with you on, and instead of putting forth supporting evidence on many of your arguments, you instead load up your arguments with condescending ad hominem and distracting straw-man attacks, wasting everybody's time while refusing to learn anything.

Since you can't be taught anything, as you refuse to have an exchange in lieu of a pure lecture, it seems to me that it is not worthwhile to give you a free platform to espouse your opinion when your own journal seems perfectly fine for people to hear your monday morning quarterbacking. Hopefully you won't care that much if nobody listens to you, but if you wanted that you should've been more respectful to other people's opinions -- especially when some of yours might not be as well-thought-out as you like to pretend.

I'll give you a tip for some of your future encounters: no one is interested in having a debate with a person who believes a condition of the debate is that they're always right and the other person must accept they are wrong before even having the discussion on the merits of their arguments. You don't know as much as you think you do, and putting on a know-it-all facade with confidence isn't going to fool anyone once they realize you've got a severe debating disability.

So, while you sit at home and think about where to next try (and fail) to evangelize people to your opinions, think about how to be more convincing when it comes to intelligent discourse, if you even care that anyone believe what you believe. You have to know your audience, and you can't be tone-deaf. Otherwise, you can continue to sit in that chair with those tone-deaf opinions, growing less relevant by the day.

It would be a shame, considering that on many things you may have shared similar viewpoints as other people -- but, you could never get over needing them to always agree with everything you said without question, so it probably comes as no surprise to anyone who's familiar with you antics elsewhere that I have now decided to block you. Good luck in your future endeavors :p

You have the most obnoxious way of talking possible.

But aside from that, let me just pull a few things from what you said.

the concerns you have now are the same concerns that EVERY generation has about the next... We're still here. So guess what! They apparently did ok.

Survival equals success? Sure, if you're a cro-magnon. As it turns out, there's more to history than the last century, and if you look at a few parallels, you'll notice that the fall of societies was usually linked to complacency. Why is this? Because complacent people don't learn, aren't challenged, and aren't prepared for things to go wrong.

So you don't like the product placement in a show. Why? Colbert is a performer just like anyone else.

Pay attention, that's something  sorethumb said, not Nobu. And it wasn't even the point of what HE said. It's not that somebody's making an ad placement, it's that this is necessary to keep people's attention.

So calm your ass down.

He's talking like a reasonable person, you're cursing up a storm and drawing short-sighted conclusions. You calm your ass down.

be careful not to engage this person in what you might think may be a rational debate. He meanders around too much and it will end up being a huge waste of your time. If your time is worth anything, you're going to eventually regret it :V

I've already done so with this exact person many times. If you want, though, I won't clutter up your journal with it.

As civilization advances, so does the way we interact with people. Just because people socialize through electronic media, it does not mean it is any less valid that any relationship you can have in real life, as long as it provides what you expect from such a relationship.

Social networking is yet another form of socializing. It does not necessarily mean it can be a replacement but a complementary form of interacting with other people.

Humans will always be social beings. Give them a new way to socialize and they will use it.

social networking is just a new conduit to bridge an increasing gap in inter-social behavior which I think other 20th century technologies had started driving wedges between us with. When I referenced social networking, it was mainly to emphasize that almost the moment it became a new medium for social interaction, it also became a venue for targeted marketing, and a large part of it then was feeding into the distraction complex.

While people can make lots of connections through social networking, those in the industry I work closely with target this medium for new marketing opportunities and have become very successful at it. Most of the people I know from the TV generations and such who aren't really used to new social paradigms mostly use these networking sites for exactly the sorts of things previous generations used to criticize TV for -- pointless distractions which do little to increase the individual's awareness of the sociopolitical world around them, and perhaps even serving to diminish or distract from it.

I went to it in more detail on subsequent replies, but basically I feel we should watch where we're going as we break new ground in these mediums, since there is a lot of power in our actions... the power of persuasion is the one which is of course the most profitable to exploit, but there might be some greater damage to our collective psyche that is not easily measurable as a result, which I was hoping to have brought attention to with my musings.

I've often felt the same way, and I decide to put faith in the possibility that the problem is louder than it is actually prevalent. It's immediately apparent when something is going wrong, but when something is going exceptionally well, it's not as noticeable. So I'm hoping that for every person who's had their brain sucked out by the media, there is a person like me who is sick of this tripe and has vowed to raise his kids without a TV in the house at all.

I also take solace in the thought that marketing is less and less necessary, or at least its function is changing. Radio and TV have a limited number of channels to cram every potential audience into. The internet, however, is infinite. People need to be told what they want less and less, because if they get the hankering for a Zombie Hillbilly Princess Restaurant Sim Dungeon Crawler, they can find it. No mega-corporation telling them that since Zombie Hillbilly Princess etc etc is not a profitable genre that they will not offer it, and Wouldn't You Really Rather Be Watching This Reality Show Instead. People will find what they actually want, and meet a few other people with similar bizarre tastes along the way, and form friendships and communities. Sure, it's not physical interaction, but it's still human interaction, and it's more fulfilling than just buying into the latest fad. Some things ARE getting worse, but other things are just changing.

Not to say that it isn't a real issue. The commercials kids see these days are absolutely militant in making sure that the impressionable youth of today worship the product. It's obscene. If I was in that business putting that shit into the world, I don't know how I'd sleep at night. You're right about how entertainers should take more responsibility.

But they're not going to, so it will be up to the parents to turn off the TV and give the kid a reality check. And some parents will be better at that than others, but I believe that plenty of them will get it right - enough to ensure that we aren't all COMPLETELY doomed.

I have to wonder, did something in particular happen to provoke this worry at this particular point in time? I'm not really asking for you to divulge specifics or anything, but I'm getting the impression that you've brushed up against something especially disturbing, or have seen something about "the Biz" from the inside that the rest of us won't. It IS depressing to look at, but the media =/= the whole world, so there's still hope!

I watched two completely different videos in the same day which were tangentially related to each other. One on directed marketing to children (it was a documentary critical of the rise of it) and another one I got on the work feed, some presentation on games breaking into new media that's somewhat related to what I do. I thought a bit about how we are supposed to get inside people's heads if we want to be more successful than the other competing startups. The presentation was something about thinking outside the box, which is what we always do, but sometimes I feel certain ideas are really really clever, and other ones are not only clever but hold a sorta secret power over people that could be exploited or abused for a certain period of time before people wise up to them. And with great power comes great responsibility, yadda yadda yadda, I read it in spider-man so it must be true :V

They prevalence of homosexuality will eventually catch up with whores who don't use protection and the population will drop back off eventually...

the problem is that the whores who get infected can and do infect dozens maybe hundreds of others before they fortunately pass away from something (like a speeding truck)

one old mans idea to cure hemophilia was to allow hemophiliacs to bleed to death before they bred more
I'm not saying he's wrong, but I don't have to agree with it either

i haven't tried to keep up with what other people think reality is, but i do know there's a whole lot bigger universe out there then anything corporate economics comes up with.

i wouldn't know about anything on tv either. i know i'm more interested in trains, computers, and the kind of world we all have to live in then anything about myself personally, or symbolic value, or anything accumulated with it, or how anyone tries to impress anyone else.

more interested in trees and gardens and little furry creatures with big sharp teeth and friendly invisible ones that snuggle up to me when i go to sleep too.

i don't mind a bit being totally out of the loop of cars and money and only wish i was even further out of the loop of stress then i already am.

just wish there were more gardens and public transportation where i live too. (and not just to places where there are already too many people living)

p.s. and btw, i'm of the generation that grew up with JFK, civil rights, and dodging the draft to get out of killing people in a place called viet nam. (i joined the air force to do that because i didn't have the balls to hitch to canada and my parents didn't have the money to send me to college. it actually worked though, so that's one thing anyway)

Thank you for providing your insight, in that case.

I'm frightened by a culture of want, myself. I have seen too many I've personally known who seem stunted in their maturity, and just can't accept that the world falls into their laps. I've always said that when life bites them in the ass, they'll have to learn.

Years later, they've become leeches on others, hopping from person to person, not bothering to be responsible for themselves. I'm frightened because this isn't an isolated case. Not two. dozens. I'm glad you were able to help divine the cause here, because my theories never did explain everything.

I've seen it before as well with my friends, and I feel like I have to actively struggle to find legitimacy in what I do so that I don't fall into the same sorts of traps, being predisposed to them, myself. But, it's a corruption in the worst kind of way with baby boomers going forward that they raised their kids thinking they protected them from bad influences, when the sorts of values we ended up growing to hold closest to us has ruined many people for good.

You know when someone says a person is "spoiled"? I feel like the original meaning on it's lost now. Think about spoiled food. It's a real shame that it ended up happening, but we didn't take the proper precautions and now there's nothing that can be done about it anymore. The values system's all screwed up and prioritized wrong, and many of these people can't help it (and we shouldn't necessarily hate them for it, just understand it). How do you teach a person, for example, with a burning hole in their wallet that they can't sustain their lifestyle buying a whole bunch of shit in this economy when their entire lives are defined by it?

Fundamentally, they'll spend themselves to death before some of them accept they're not defined by their things, because it's a surrogate to their mental well-being. That is to say, maybe they're broke and they're in debt and about to lose everything, but to destroy their values system after their minds formed around it would be like destroying their sanity. That is why the person has become "spoiled", because it may not be possible to salvage anything anymore. Also, holy shit I'm surprised how often this comes to the surface with the panhandling threads on FA for shit they don't even need or shouldn't need to deal with, but other people just keep enabling the behavior, because they feel the same exact way and have similar screwed-up priorities.

Tough times for all of us ahead, but I truly hope I'm wrong on my definition of "spoiled", because I'd like to think that otherwise good people can survive being broken down like they're going to be in the upcoming years.

"Spoiled" seems too apt, and I share your hope that there's something to salvage. Reading something like this tells me not all of humanity is doomed. I learned my lesson about money. I still don't have a credit card, because I know I'm too impulsive to handle one. I've learned to hole some money away, and am good about saving for toys. My vinyl cutter and screening supplies didn't appear, nor were they easy to afford. But they were investments in both something fun to do and to make a few extra bucks here and there.

I woe especially for my sister. I wish I could get through to her. Leading by example clearly didn't work, and if I say anything I get the same "Uh-huh" and head bobble my parents get. She's managed to overstay her welcome all over, except with me - because, I can only assume, she doesn't like the rules (or perhaps chipping in a little something for rent is the trouble?).

Also, disturbing thought: The rating that has been put on old Sesame Street DVDs. Apparently it can only be handled by 13+. Of all the things in this world that I'd keep away from kids...

back at that time I think sesame street was contreversial even then because of the question of what role (and responsibility) children's programming should take when it came to serious subjects ... I think that was supposed to help parents, but these days I think parents want to shield kids from everything like that because it's too much trouble for them to explain it! Kinda messed up if you ask me but it fits in with the notion that today's adults are still living like yesterday's kids in a fashion.

For me, I stopped watching sesame street when it got immensely boring. The show didn't grow up with us, in fact over the years it seems to have kinda dumbed down to the point where it's the same watered-down stuff as everything else. Completely innocuous and devoid of meaningful or thought-provoking things.

Say, did you hear they're remaking NIMH? How much you wanna bet they'll have to tone that down so it doesn't teach anything some parent out there doesn't want their kids to learn, like how things die :V

Indeed it didn't grow up with us, and... NIMH?

Those fuckers.

Then comes the theory of= If you remove technology we've gotten use to these years. The result is depression and frustration to returning back to normality of life. If cells, net and comps die. We feel disconnected from the world somehow when we are already when on the computer. Since we have everything now at our finger tips at a simple key stroke =x

when using your computer make sure you have a way to focus out the distractions. If need be you can walk away from it, but it is not necessary to utilize your full potential with the machine. Hone-in the multitasking, when you wish to do something productive, to the things that will promote productive behavior. For me, sometimes that means having to step away from chatting, but you can try doing sketches on paper again, or turning off the internet while drawing

You might find the depression is a side effect from breaking an addiction, and who knows, maybe even feel more enjoyment when there are less distractions flying around all the time in various windows/tabs

Yeah I usually go out to walks and such with friends whenever I can. But when College assignments eat up time. It's nearly impossible not to be on the computer. Which is usually hard to avoid. I do paper sketches haven't uploaded them in awhile. But as always any free time I have I try and spend it outside on the road.