Assignment 5- Julian

TV is the downfall of our society. The end is near. GAME OVER, MAN.
Maybe not, though. We were wrong about that whole Y2K thing, too. Television has been wrongly placed as the brain juicer we think it is, but for all the right reasons. It isn't stimulating, it damages the eyes, it leads to unhealthy lives, and it Jersey Shored us. This once great nation that we call America has been Snookied. Bamboozled, I say! We're been fed this "quality entertainment" in the form of ads, spray-on tan, and more ads. We actually give people money in order to watch 2 or 3 of our favorite television shows a month before they are available for free on the internet or via Netflix's subscription service, and we do this willingly on a time frame we have to work our schedules around. Well, you know that they say: "Nothing says convenience like the opposite of convenience."
I say that, anyway. I say that because it's true. This is what TV has taught companies. Companies can get away with being inconvenient and outdated as long as what they're selling is something we can't live without. Maybe we can't live without our daily dose of Dangerous Truck Drivers on Frozen Water or It's Forever Bright in Philadelphia, but we can live with a better way to get our fix. Netflix is a great company doing great things for television, and it lets you watch on your time, without ads, because a service that you pay for should not be limiting your access to the very same service. TV in the generic sense is an invention now used to sell products. The shows are just there to keep our attention until the next ad, and that is not how it should be. The shows should be the main attraction, not half and half split between entertainment and commercials trying to get more money out of the consumer. There are even ads in the shows themselves, as if there wasn't already enough time in the day for advertisements.
So the dilemma at hand is what to do about this. Companies go where the money is, consumers supply the money, and we are the consumers. That is all there is to it. Society will either move forward, with Netflix, Hulu, and other streaming networks, or society will stay where it is now. This choice is what will decide what television will become, and if it will even be in our future. It is not an active choice, rather a very passive one. It is our unspoken choice, to unknowingly choose as we see fit. We decide how this (very relatively) new art form will change, just as it has changed us before.