Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television

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Now let's go a step further.

Please bring to mind a baseball game or a football game. Have you got one? Hold it for a moment.

If you are like most Americans, you have actually been to a game. You have seen one directly and probably participated in one. You have probably also watched at least one of them on television. Here's the question: Which one did you bring to mind? The television version or the one you experienced directly?

The answers vary on this point, but many people I have asked will report that the television image is the one which springs to mind first, if only because it was the most recent. Most will say the images rotate.

Once images are inside your head, the mind doesn't really distinguish between the image that was gathered directly and the one that derived from television.

Of course you can distinguish. When I asked you whether it was a television image or a firsthand image, you were certainly able to identify which was which. But until I asked you, you may not have thought to do that.

Have you ever met movie stars or famous television personalities? Whenever I have met them I have always remarked to myself upon the difference in the personal image they presented and the television or film image. I could recognize them when I saw them in person, I am only saying that it was different. The main point is this: When I think about them now, in retrospect, their television images are just as likely to spring into my mind as their real-life images. I can decide to bring up their real images if I wish to, but if their names are mentioned in passing conversation, or I read a review of a production they've been in, I am actually more likely to bring up a media image than one of the real person I have met.

Have you ever visited McDonald's? Which images dominate in your mind, those from your actual visit or those from television? They rotate, don't they? They take on a certain equality in your memory banks. You can make the distinction between the direct image and the advertising image, but do you? If for some reason the subject of McDonald's comes up in conversation, which image comes into your mind as you talk? Do you make the distinction? If you are like most people to whom I've asked this question, it is only with great effort that you are able to distinguish which one is the personal experience and which is the television experience. It takes a certain amount of effort to do so; one doesn't ordinarily bother. The television image can be as real in effect as the personally experienced image.

The mind doesn't automatically distinguish which image is from experience and which has been imposed by the media. If I should now ask you to erase the television image of McDonald's, leaving only the reality-the personally experienced direct contact-can you do that? Please make the effort and see if you can.

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