Jolts:
I always get yelled at by my friends and family when they watch tv with me. Every 10 minutes or every time a commercial comes on I have a sudden urge to change the channel. While surfing through the channels I'll stop at one or two and watch them for about 5 minutes and start turning through them all again. After reading through the section about this in Culture Jam, it came to my realization that I am just looking for something to catch my eye in a show, a jolt. It is almost like my brain is addicted to finding jolts or something exciting on tv. Little do you know, that shows have hidden jolts, you don't know it's happening when it grabs all your attention. So, while you're flipping through channels, you see a jolt in a show and you stop and watch it. By stopping at that channel, you just fell into tv's trap.
Commercials use jolts the same way. Think about all of the infomercials that show the new inventions, they always grab your amazement and shock for a short period of time and the ingeniousness of the product submerges you into the commecial. Jolts are what make up commercials.
Every teenager is inlove with MTV. This channel is filled with random jolts that you are so use to seeing, that you do not notice them. In almost every show on this channel, there are random moments when the characters talk about sex, fighting, drugs, alcohol or partying.
Are jolts the downfall of tv?
If the amount of jolts were regulated, would we be drawn to watch tv?
What if the cliffhangers we love to hate were only allowed in shows every once-in-a-while?
Would you still watch tv if there was half the suspense in everyday shows?
Would there be a big difference in tv?
If jolts were regulated, would we even notice?Since we subconsiously let jolts grab our attention now, would we notice if there were only half as many?
This section intrigues my interest so much because before reading it, I didn't notice how well tv industry was trained to warp our minds.
I'm guilty of channel-flipping. What is it that makes us believe that there's always something better, faster, happier, more intense, more entertaining out there...and if we don't change the channel fast enough, we'll never find it?
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that the tv industry is trained to warp our minds! Also jolts are very addicting!
ReplyDeleteI think that is funny that you mention infomercials. There have been times that I flip the channel and find an infomercial on and I start watching it to see what the new gismo is that they are trying to sell. Before I know it I am drawn into it and watch the reader of the infomercial. In fact thinking about it I’m sure some kids will be able to pick out Bill Maze then Gorge Washington. As a guy I like the fighting in shows. I like movies like 300 where it is almost all action. As it goes for jolts on tv, I think The Jersey Shore is literally a show that is all jolts. I don’t believe that we should regulate the number of jolts in a show, because I think it is too hard to say what would constitute as jolt and it would cost too much money which we do not have. I would most like watch less tv if every show would be like Sesame Street and movies be like The Fox and the Hound. It would get too boring if everything was like that.
ReplyDeleteI liked how you connected the your everyday life with the book Culture Jam. I too always am flipping through the channels whenever a commercial comes on.From reading Culture Jam so far i know that there are random jolts built in to keep the viewer entertained.
ReplyDeleteI would not say that jolts are the downfall of tv but they do play a major role because when I watch TV I always change the channel every time a commercial is on. TV is just starting to take up too much of our time and it is polluting our minds with all the messages it sends us.
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