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| The entire area to my right was leaned towards the other larger TV |
Passing through Taipei I just witnessed something I've never seen before. As you can see above, the lounge at Taoyuan airport was close to full this evening, and the two large screen TVs were both tuned to different news networks.
Evidently there was nothing to report other than what newly-idolized freshman basketball star Jeremy Lin thought about most anything - from basketball to food to shoes. One report after another after another. There was even one with cartooned diagrams that explained what some of the celebratory moves mean as used in the USA among players - the fist pumps, etc. Honest to God. It's not in English, but even I understood that one.
His coverage has been going on steady now for over an hour; one somewhat contrived looking report after another, and many eyes are glued to each one. It's nice to see the support he has here, and you can see the joy on many people's faces when they see him on TV... and not just the men who regularly would follow sports, either; the woman picking up used plates and glasses was watching the screen and not what she was doing and dumped the leftover food onto the floor instead of into the bus tray on her cart.
Making my way to Suvarnabhumi - will check in again soon when my schedule smooths out a bit. I'm going to hit the ground running there, but I'll be around.
I haven't lived with a television for the last 35 years. It's the rare person in modern society that notices what you noticed...how television captures attention, and pours nonsense distraction into society enmass, with no awareness on the part of those on the receiving end. I see this all the time and find it to be surreal and disturbing...especially in light of the fact that Westerners watch an average of 6 hours of tv a day (!) and research that estimates that children witness 150,000 murders on television in the first 18 years of their lives.
ReplyDeleteI'd definitely "do" Jeremy Lin but I'm told he's a serious Christian, poor deluded fool.
ReplyDeleteRe: television - the media isn't nearly as objective as it should be, and it's light years removed from what it could be, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteWhat the thinking person has to do is find a way to filter it as best we can or - as the comment above said - simply avoid it altogether. That's not to say stick our heads in the sand, but by the same token not sit for hours waiting for news for salacious details about a celebrity's death, if you know what I mean.