"Television induces a quasi-hypnotic state"

[Viking12]

I think that Al Gore, media psychologist :), hit the nail on the head.

During a question and answer session, one student asked why many U.S. citizens seemed unconcerned about the environment and why politicians seemed more focused on terrorism.

"Television induces a quasi-hypnotic state," said Gore, a former newspaper reporter. "The immune system that used to protect our democracy against big lies and faulty perceptions no longer protects us as it used to."

http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/business/index.ssf?/newsflash/get_story.ssf?/cgi-free/getstory_ssf.cgi?g9440_BC_MI--Gore-GlobalWarmin&&news&newsflash-financial

[chelsea0011]

1. Damn! And I thought I was always in a full-hypnotic sleep.

:boring: :boring: :boring: :boring:


Now back to "Dynasty"

[DenverDem]

2. Actual psycho-physiological effect.

When watching television, we are actually seeing lines of dots. Our mind unconsciously fills in the black spaces around the dots creating our vision of a full picture. This unconscious, but very real adaptive mental activity has the effect of "suspension of disbelief" that allows us to enjoy viewing without the cognitive dissonance of seeing the spaces between the dots.

A fascinating phenomenon I discovered decades ago in college when studying Marshall McLuhan. This is what he was talking about when he said "The medium is the message." What he means is that the form of the dominant information medium and the way we perceive through it is more important than the information contained therein. This dominant technique of information transmission literally changes the way we think physiologically. This has important implications in the post television, HD television, internet dominated society in which we now reside. What impact will these new technologies have on the way we think as humans?