I recently had a conversation with some colleagues about ITV's deceased show Parkinson. The gist of the conversation was that TV channels don't really broadcast shows like this anymore, because everything has become 'dumbed down'. The only chat shows we have now are comedy shows such as The Graham Norton Show. The particular lament was that there are no shows that feature people just talking. Everything, it was suggested, is 'dumbed down' nowadays.
I feel slightly uneasy about this: it has certain reactionary undercurrent that makes me uncomfortable for one thing - the past was not indisputably better (or worse) the the present; real life is more complicated than that. I have no evidence for this, however, but I do think that TV shows are more likely to feature small chunks of easily-digestible information than they did when I was growing up in the 70s and 80s.
One obvious explanation for this is that TV executives have ratings to maintain and don't like to risk audiences switching over part way through a show. There were only 3 channels before 1982; now, I really have no idea, but the numbering on my Freeview box goes up to 999; we also have games' consoles, a plethora of radio channels, not to mention fabulous websites, such as Twitter, You Tube or even Myoclonic Jerk (no link for obvious reasons).
My one colleague felt that this substantiated his argument about the 'dumbing down' of culture. People get so used to changing channels or surfing to new websites that no one can concentrate on anything demanding. In the past, he suggested, people would watch shows such as Parkinson, perhaps because there was nothing else on, or perhaps because they were only interested in one guest. Whatever the reason, the show was on and that person might learn something unexpected. This is a possibility, but is is equally possible that people had the show on in the background, while they talked about the football, beat up the kids or did whatever people did in the 70s. I'm not entirely sure we are a more stupid society because people can look for something they want to engage with.
There has been some research on the neurological effects of internet usage, but nothing conclusive yet. It is perhaps inevitable that those of us who grew up without internet access and more TV channels than we can easily count feel uncomfortable with it. I'm pretty sure my parents' generation (who didn't really get into TV until adolescence) felt that my generation were stupid because we watched too much TV (but not Parkinson, which was on after our bedtime).
Ultimately, it is not the medium that leads to 'dumbing down' (if such a thing exists). Look at this You Tube Channel, pick a video and watch it all the way through. You might enjoy it; you might learn something; or, you might be bored out of your mind: whatever happens, don't make the mistake of blaming the internet or cable TV for 'dumbing down'. As I said at the beginning of this blog, real life is a bit more complicated than that.
