Monday, June 24, 2013
MA 260 / Week One Discussion: Too Much Entertainment?
Two thousand years ago, Plato (429-347 B.C.E.) issued an injunction to Athenian democracy that art should aim to "instruct and uplift." Today, we see that art (the staple content of mass media) aims more to entertain rather than to uplift. How do you evaluate today's media content? Do you agree with Plato? Are we entertained too much?
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I can agree with Plato's injunction that we perhaps are over entertained as a society. As technology has progressed, keeping people entertained has become more difficult and rapid. Media has become so prevelent that most of time it lacks the ability to expose us to anything new- and thus resorts to recycling ideas that were at one time innovative and compelling, now for the sake of entertaining, rather than instructing. The great majority of mainstream media is aimed at entertaining- and the great majority of that entertainment is relatively mindless sitcoms or biased, misinterpreted "news" that the media has twisted and contorted to manipulate the viewer- all for the sake of entertainment. If the big companies can keep the public entertained then they make money- and the all mighty dollar is the most important aspect. I don't think there will ever be a reduction in the amount of media available to entertain, but if we look closely we can pick out the innovative and creative from amongst the sea of dead entertainment.
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