The
NYT
article in today's Plain Dealer about the impending arrival of advertising
on cellphones—in exchange for lower phone bills, of course—is another discouraging
reminder of how our lives have become all about buying and selling.
Combine this with the PBS show "22nd Century" the other night that talked about the "World Wide Mind" and you have a truly depressing vision of our lives spent in touch with the world...brought to you by AT&T, Proctor & Gamble, Coke and Starbucks.
The World Wide Mind concept involves, among other things, literally wiring our brains using extremely tiny wires run through the brain's capillaries so that we can have direct input from computers. No need for mouse, keyboard or other physical interfaces. So when we are curious about, say, "Desperate Housewives" we'd immediately get a view of information, like a supercharged Google. But it seems that it's likely to come with advertising included. I don't know about you, but that doesn't make me feel better at all.
Does the spread of advertising throughout our entire lives concern you?
What's wrong with this picture?
Oh, you don't see anything? That's my point. The TV show Desperate Housewives apparently spends thousands of dollars a year digitally erasing the nipples of at least a couple of the show's stars. Seems to me that there's something just a bit weird about creating a show that uses attractive women in somewhat revealing clothes as a main selling point, then going to great lengths to make them less human, more Barbie-like (Barbie doesn't have nipples, does she?)
As a man who appreciates women's breasts, nipples included, this seems like an example of the strange amibivalence our society has toward sex. Use it to sell virtually everything, but don't admit that you like it too much.
As I think about this, probably men and women will react to this differently. Do you think this is just reasonable discretion on the part of the network, or hypocritical prudishness? If you don't mind, state your gender with your answer.