As of late I've been gradually listening to more cpop compared to American/European tracks, as I find Chinese music to be much easier on the ears and mind. It's not overly distracting if I'm focusing on work and it doesn't throw a million things at me every second. Comparatively, it seems most western popular music seem to be quite in-your-face. I find it much more difficult to focus on work if I have western music in the background since the beats tend to be heavier and overly complicated in an attempt at attracting my every attention.
Sunday, August 23, 2015
Monday, August 17, 2015
Idiocracy
The problem with watching the film Idiocracy is that, for a period of time after the film, I will look more closely than usual for any hint at society heading towards the direction of anti-intellectual attention-lacking idiots. So naturally today the latest thing I saw after I came home from work was none to pleasing.
Apparently on ESPN the audio on single-highlight videos has been replaced by music to engage viewers instead of using either existing commentary from the original broadcast or whatever the microphones at the field pick up. Think about that for a second-even for 15-second highlights ESPN feels there is a need to use music to engage the audience to drive clicks (and thus revenue) compared to any competing service, and that existing commentary is not enough to get enough people to watch a highlight. This kind of falls into the reign of click-bait headlines trying to get your attention with some ridiculously stupid phrase such as "You won't believe what happens next!"
Perhaps I'm digging down the rabbit hole a little to far...
Apparently on ESPN the audio on single-highlight videos has been replaced by music to engage viewers instead of using either existing commentary from the original broadcast or whatever the microphones at the field pick up. Think about that for a second-even for 15-second highlights ESPN feels there is a need to use music to engage the audience to drive clicks (and thus revenue) compared to any competing service, and that existing commentary is not enough to get enough people to watch a highlight. This kind of falls into the reign of click-bait headlines trying to get your attention with some ridiculously stupid phrase such as "You won't believe what happens next!"
Perhaps I'm digging down the rabbit hole a little to far...
Sunday, August 2, 2015
Television and Irrational Behavior
A while back I was on a plane flight and, with not much else to do to pass six hours, watched a seasons of Parks and Recreation, the first sitcom (or any other television program outside of sports) that I had watched in probably ten or so years. It will probably be at least ten more years before I watch another television program, because watching television makes me irrationally angry and unable to enjoy the program.
This irrational anger stems from the irrational behavior often exhibited in these shows, often to create a plot or develop character developments and foils. However, what I am unable to get past is why it's acceptable to behave irrationally in television when it is often not acceptable to do so in real life. Given that these sitcoms are often supposed to be funny, these behavior is often trivialized. (Of course, if I wanted to watch comedy without any sense of morality or political correctness, then I'd rather watch Dave Chapelle or whatever where everything goes instead of sitcoms that feel forced).
In Parks and Recreation, I could not stand Leslie Knope, because the character was always acting in an irrational manner and was mostly selfishly thinking about herself, which is a common trait prevalent through society. Most of the other characters I couldn't stand as well, like Tom's creepy flirting and Andy's immaturity. I have a hard time being entertained while this type of behavior is occurring. While I can understand enjoying comedy for comedy's sake, I don't like it when I see people who behave like these sitcom characters and model their personalities and actions as such.
Perhaps this may be a case of looking at everything as a potential effect of society's anti-intellectualism movement towards the trend of Idiocracy, where people no longer think for themselves and allow the corporations and media to control everything, but I have a hard time believing that society will ever become more forward-thinking.
This irrational anger stems from the irrational behavior often exhibited in these shows, often to create a plot or develop character developments and foils. However, what I am unable to get past is why it's acceptable to behave irrationally in television when it is often not acceptable to do so in real life. Given that these sitcoms are often supposed to be funny, these behavior is often trivialized. (Of course, if I wanted to watch comedy without any sense of morality or political correctness, then I'd rather watch Dave Chapelle or whatever where everything goes instead of sitcoms that feel forced).
In Parks and Recreation, I could not stand Leslie Knope, because the character was always acting in an irrational manner and was mostly selfishly thinking about herself, which is a common trait prevalent through society. Most of the other characters I couldn't stand as well, like Tom's creepy flirting and Andy's immaturity. I have a hard time being entertained while this type of behavior is occurring. While I can understand enjoying comedy for comedy's sake, I don't like it when I see people who behave like these sitcom characters and model their personalities and actions as such.
Perhaps this may be a case of looking at everything as a potential effect of society's anti-intellectualism movement towards the trend of Idiocracy, where people no longer think for themselves and allow the corporations and media to control everything, but I have a hard time believing that society will ever become more forward-thinking.
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