 to visit in each other's homes, and a welcome was so taken for granted that nobody believed in the necessity of prior notice. The car pulling in the driveway might be a relative from out-of-town. The knock on the door at any hour of the day or evening might be a neighbor just dropping in. Entertaining people by invitation was part of a normal week.
People carried on many useful activities in the community. Most were busy in their church as well as in civic organizations. There were service clubs, softball and bowling leagues, town bands and choirs, garden clubs, and political parties. Everybody participated in Fourth of July festivities, which included a parade so that half the town could watch the other half go by in costumes and smiles. Everybody kept Christmas and shared it to some extent with his neighbors. How many today know what it means to go caroling?
Most of these activities are now extinct. Why? One major reason is television.
9. Promotion of Youth Culture
Television is a powerful acculturating medium. In the 1950s it promoted traditional culture as it was known to the sophisticated upper middle class. This was a rather worldly culture, tolerant of vices such as smoking, drinking, and flirtation. But for the most part the culture mirrored on television was highly conservative. Cultural norms supported family life, church attendance, and patriotism.
Since the late 1960s, television has become an engine of another culture—the one we have elsewhere identified as youth culture. The main cohesive force in youth culture is rock music, a staple of modern television. The pervasive theme of youth culture is protest against traditional values. Lest anyone doubt that youth culture has taken over television, let him choose any talk show at random, and he will find that its main thrust is to overturn some belief or scruple once taken for granted.
10. Promotion of Materialism
Television is a commercial medium. It gives the viewer entertainment at a price—the price being to sit and watch an endless procession of mindless commercials. The evil in these commercials is twofold.
- They appeal to baser instincts. Many flaunt sexually provocative images, because these catch the eye. Many feature personalities who are rough and mean, because these are presumed to reflect the self-image of today's viewer. Many show people in drunken revelry, or seeking a good time in ways that are reckless and juvenile. Many tout the message, stated or implied, "You only go around once in life, so seek all the gusto you can."
- They teach an uncritical materialism. According to television, happiness requires the latest and finest of every kind of luxury. Young people hooked on this philosophy soon find themselves slaves to our consumer economy. Once they become saddled with debt and unfulfilled wants, they have no choice but to sell their souls to their careers. But careers today may cheat people out of rewarding lives—lives which keep fulfilling jobs in balance with time for faith and family.
11. Generation of Discontent and Escapism
A happy life according to television is life in the fast lane—a life shared with fashionable people, cradled in wealth, and devoted to self-indulgence. We no doubt can agree that this is not really the good life. But is it even possible? How many people live like most of the characters they see on television? Very few. Most people who watch television must be somewhat discontent with their lot.
Most women looking across the room at their husbands, and most men looking across the room at their wives, can see that life has not given them a partner with the glamour and charm of a media star. Perhaps here we have one reason the institution of marriage is crumbling.
The average viewer comparing himself with the television characters he admires will judge himself inferior in many other ways as well. He is poorer, less popular and influential, less witty and bold, and so on. The result? Fantasy becomes more satisfying than real life. It is far more pleasant to sit back in a lounge chair and pretend that Mr. Nobody (oneself) 