The general decline in standards today

[LizzieMaine]

I see your point. Would you agree that certain shows that are now on in prime time should probably be shown much later at night? Perhaps the Seth McFarland empire should be relegated to after 10PM?

Those of us who survived the 70s will remember "Family Viewing Time," in which the three networks agreed that only family-friendly programming would be shown between 8 and 9 pm, with more adult oriented shows presented only between 9 and 11. The rise of cable in the '90s put an end to that, and there's no way you could get enough networks today to agree to it, especially those which cultivate a bad-boy-in-your-face image.

 

[Gregg Axley]

Well if Marc is going to talk about the way I dress each day, I'll just come to his neighborhood and wear only my baseball cap (I have quite a collection of solid colored ones). It will go with whatever I'm wearing, which is nothing (but the cap). That'll learn his neighbors (once they regain their sight).
Oh believe me, the things I see in the South that people call an "outfit" or "fit to wear out" I might add.
We watch Leave It To Beaver every Sat and Sun on DVD. The only wisecracker is Eddie Haskell, and you see where that gets him with others...nowhere. We're in season 5 now, where they are grown up, and yet you still see respect from the boys. Yeah it's a tv show, but I think the show reflected the culture back then, or is it the other way around? The Brady Bunch is that way too. Sure Greg wanted to have his own room, wear his hippie shades, and act like his buddies, but in the end he realized he'd get no respect from others that way. His mom and dad were right, respect in self must come first.

 

[sheeplady]

I see your point. Would you agree that certain shows that are now on in prime time should probably be shown much later at night? Perhaps the Seth McFarland empire should be relegated to after 10PM?

I don't watch a lot of prime time, so I'm not familar with most of it. (I watch PBS primetime mostly, but haven't really watched other networks in a couple years, except occasionally.) I think the after 10pm is what most countries do with their broadcast. This way it is still available and accessible to adults, they either need to wait up or record it. I do think that advertisers would throw a hissy fit about it though, so it will never happen.

I don't like some of the messages that are being pushed in some of the television series I have seen- for example- I really don't like some of the messages the "choose your mate in a freaky contest" reality shows push. (I've never seen an entire episode, but I've seen some commericals.) If my child saw some of it I would have a discussion with my child about healthy sex & relationships.

I realize that they might see stuff that I object to someplace other than my home, but I hope that my teachings have a stronger hold than that. I saw some age-inappropriate things when I was young at other people's homes, but I survived and turned out ok. I would actually be more worried about what they saw people they knew do every day than what they saw on television. I saw some much worse things as a young child in real life than on TV or in the movies- age inappropriate or not.

 

[JimWagner]

When I was a kid we had one tv in the house, in the living room, receiving over the air channels, and we kids watched what my Dad wanted to watch or we didn't watch at all. After the homework was finished, and not before, we could watch what we wanted until Dad got home from work. Saturday mornings, if we got up early enough, we could watch cartoons with the sound down low until our parents got up. After that the tv was either on what our Dad wanted to watch or we were all outside. Evenings we were headed off to bed by 9 anyway.

That rather limited what we watched as the programs our parents liked were seldom of any interest to the kids.

Contrast that to today where there's a tv in every room in many houses including the kids' rooms, hundred of cable or satellite channels to chooses from and little, if any, supervision over what the kids are watching. Given that scenario is there any surprise that the kids represent a distinct demographic and programming and commercials on certain networks are aimed specifically at them? Dad may be in the living room watching 60 Minutes (or more likely a reality show) but the kids are in their rooms getting their little brains washed.

And the next generation spawned by the never ending process?

Idiocracy is a documentary.

 

[1961MJS]

My mother's favorite comment when we got out of line was "IF YOU DONT SMARTEN UP I'M GONNA SELL YOU TO THE BABY OIL FACTORY."

She never did, though.

Hi

And here I thought Baby-oil was made FOR Babies, not made OF babies. Shudder shudder. :eeek:

Later

 

[rue]

If you do a bit of websearching, there are certain places on the internet where some of the very pictures people post on the Lounge are subjected to the most vicious mockery you can imagine. Nothing our Marc could do would even approach it. Don't search unless you can take it.

That is some scary reading Lizzie!

 

[AmateisGal]

Contrast that to today where there's a tv in every room in many houses including the kids' rooms, hundred of cable or satellite channels to chooses from and little, if any, supervision over what the kids are watching. Given that scenario is there any surprise that the kids represent a distinct demographic and programming and commercials on certain networks are aimed specifically at them?

Exactly why we don't have cable at our house. My 11-year-old daughter watches Hogan's Heroes on DVD more than anything else. We originally got rid of it when we were under some financial pressure three or four years ago. Now that we're back on our feet, we still don't have it. That's how I want it, too.

 

[Gregg Axley]

As long as she doesn't try to tunnel under the fence.
We're going to cut the movie channels from our Directv, because we don't watch them.
Honestly there is nothing I want to see.
Plus, with Netflix streaming, I can download all the old movies I want.
Jim that's the problem isn't it? Information overload...

 

[LizzieMaine]

The biggest problem with the modern information overload that I can see is one of credibility. The internet tends to make all information equal -- a seriously-researched essay by a qualified author and a delusional screed on some random blog are all the same thing to the undiscriminating reader. So we end up with a generation that's convinced the moon landing was all a frameup job, that JFK was killed by a sinister conspiracy headed by Frank Sinatra and Joe DiMaggio in revenge for the death of Marilyn Monroe, and that America was the aggressor in World War II. Because we saw it on the Internet.

When "facts" are arrived at by consensus, they cease to be facts.

 

[1961MJS]

If you do a bit of websearching, there are certain places on the internet where some of the very pictures people post on the Lounge are subjected to the most vicious mockery you can imagine. Nothing our Marc could do would even approach it. Don't search unless you can take it.

Hi Lizzie

I didn't find anything looking up "www.thefedoralounge.com". I looked for a whole 20 pages and didn't feel mocked. What should I search on?

By the way, I WAS wondering why JFK was killed, now I know it was a conspiracy headed by Frank Sinatra, and Joe DiMaggio. Wow, and everyone thought LBJ and the CIA did it so Bell Helicopter could sell more choppers...

Thanks

 

[LizzieMaine]

If you search long enough for "Fedora Lounge" you'll strike the mother lode. But there are far more worthwhile things to waste your time on, like blogs devoted entirely to the drying properties of soybean-based enamels.

 

[C-dot]

If you search long enough for "Fedora Lounge" you'll strike the mother lode. But there are far more worthwhile things to waste your time on, like blogs devoted entirely to the drying properties of soybean-based enamels.

'Tis true. Rue found one bashing hats, and I thought it funny because the participants ended up bashing each other.

 

[noonblueapples]

.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Sounds like my dad's description of childhood. Usually watching stuff like Lawrence Welk and Hee Haw, ironically, that's what I watch with my folks now and love every minute of it lol

When I was a kid we had one tv in the house, in the living room, receiving over the air channels, and we kids watched what my Dad wanted to watch or we didn't watch at all. After the homework was finished, and not before, we could watch what we wanted until Dad got home from work. Saturday mornings, if we got up early enough, we could watch cartoons with the sound down low until our parents got up. After that the tv was either on what our Dad wanted to watch or we were all outside. Evenings we were headed off to bed by 9 anyway.

That rather limited what we watched as the programs our parents liked were seldom of any interest to the kids.

Contrast that to today where there's a tv in every room in many houses including the kids' rooms, hundred of cable or satellite channels to chooses from and little, if any, supervision over what the kids are watching. Given that scenario is there any surprise that the kids represent a distinct demographic and programming and commercials on certain networks are aimed specifically at them? Dad may be in the living room watching 60 Minutes (or more likely a reality show) but the kids are in their rooms getting their little brains washed.

And the next generation spawned by the never ending process?

Idiocracy is a documentary.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

If you search long enough for "Fedora Lounge" you'll strike the mother lode. But there are far more worthwhile things to waste your time on, like blogs devoted entirely to the drying properties of soybean-based enamels.

On another forum they call us "Capone Kids." lol

 

[sheeplady]

When I was a kid we had one tv in the house, in the living room, receiving over the air channels, and we kids watched what my Dad wanted to watch or we didn't watch at all. After the homework was finished, and not before, we could watch what we wanted until Dad got home from work. Saturday mornings, if we got up early enough, we could watch cartoons with the sound down low until our parents got up. After that the tv was either on what our Dad wanted to watch or we were all outside. Evenings we were headed off to bed by 9 anyway.

There is no reason why it can't be that way today. Unless you live someplace where broadcast is not available, no one makes anyone buy cable (even then, you can buy TV shows on DVD). No one is chaining anyone to having more than one TV in their house. Some people don't even own a TV by choice.

I grew up in the 1980s, in a place where broadcast television did not reach, at first we had a big dish and then we went to cable. We owned one television until I was at least 12. The second was for my grandparents when they moved in with us, and later was given to me (it basically sat in my room unused unless I was too sick to get out of bed). I watched what television I did in the kitchen with my parents. I was allowed to watch one show after school/ or at night which was "my show" (my mother and/or father often watched this with me), had to do my chores, make dinner with my mother, and following dinner my parents watched television while I did my homework at the kitchen table. If I finished my homework, I often did some reading for fun at the kitchen table. Even though I could have gone in my room and watched my own TV shows, I didn't because that's not what we did in my household. Many of my friends had their own phone lines, own TVs, own cable subscriptions (before you could have more than one channel on in the house), and later even computers in their room. I knew that was not the way it was done in my household. We worked as a family, we ate as a family, and we watched TV as a family.

 

[JimWagner]

Jim that's the problem isn't it? Information overload...

Right. Along with bad information overload.

 

[LoveMyHats2]

Hi

And here I thought Baby-oil was made FOR Babies, not made OF babies. Shudder shudder. :eeek:

Later

Oh lord that is so funny! It reminds me of one part of a movie the Adams Family when the kids Wendy and Pugsly are selling lemon aide and some girl scouts ask them if there are real lemons used in the lemon aide and Wendy replies do you use real girl scouts to make your girl scout cookies!

 

[AmateisGal]

The biggest problem with the modern information overload that I can see is one of credibility. The internet tends to make all information equal -- a seriously-researched essay by a qualified author and a delusional screed on some random blog are all the same thing to the undiscriminating reader. So we end up with a generation that's convinced the moon landing was all a frameup job, that JFK was killed by a sinister conspiracy headed by Frank Sinatra and Joe DiMaggio in revenge for the death of Marilyn Monroe, and that America was the aggressor in World War II. Because we saw it on the Internet.

When "facts" are arrived at by consensus, they cease to be facts.

As a historian, this drives me nuts. People don't know what reliable sources are anymore.

 

[Undertow]

...the moon landing was all a frameup job, that JFK was killed by a sinister conspiracy headed by Frank Sinatra and Joe DiMaggio in revenge for the death of Marilyn Monroe, and that America was the aggressor in World War II. Because we saw it on the Internet....

:eeek:

Wait a minute...so these aren't absolute truths?!

And I suppose you'll tell me Santa Claus isn't a direct translation of the Odin mythology purposely created to buffudle our families into celebrating a pagan god? Bah!