Worse Living Through Better
Technology I believe that advances in technology
over the last fifty years have only served as a catalyst to the breakdown of our
society and, though I can’t stop them, I will try to curb the effects they have
on my family and me. Television, being perhaps the most significant
technological breakthrough ever, has allowed society to escape from reality and
replace it with whatever is on the screen. 1
Anyone who has seen The Partridge Family knows that life really
isn’t like that, and this can leave a person feeling empty and cheated.
2 The more television
I watch, the more likely I am to become detached from my own life and from
reality. It is too easy to get caught up in whatever is happening on screen.
3 It is very easy to take what you hear
on any given news channel as the way it is, but maybe it is just the way they
want you to perceive it. If it’s not the news that’s being
piped into the television, it’s something even worse, like the
latest trend-reality television. 4 Sports programs, to my mind, have also always been a great distraction from
reality. I find it amazing that I am still attracted to the result of a football
game when it has absolutely no bearing on my existence whatsoever.
It was Halloween last night and, since I don’t have cable at the moment,
I watched The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown with my family via YouTube on my
PlayStation 3, which happens to double as a web browser. I told my kids that the
cartoon was from 1966, and that back then no one would be able to imagine this
program being watched on something like a PlayStation 3, over a network like
YouTube, rather than on NBC, ABC, or CBS. Those were the only three networks I
had when I was growing up. 5
A. Meanwhile my own life gets put on hold and my problems don’t get
fixed. B. I don’t know about anyone else but my reality isn’t
like the reality I see on these programs. C. I believe that
this not only makes a person unable to identify with himself, but also sets
unrealistic standards of what life should be like. D. Although
I have not allowed technology to take over my life completely, I know that I
would be foolish to think it doesn’t affect me in many ways. E.
Television also leaves less time for other activities that can stimulate your
mind, for example reading a book, or conversing with friends or
family. F. I was able to convey my message to my kids about how
far technology has come.