What Does the Average American See 20,000 Times a Year?
June 17, 2008 In yesterday's post, I was addressing a question that is essentially about why it is so hard to settle on just one Buddhist practice. One of the reasons that occurred to me is so general that I decided to do a separate post on it.
Why is it so difficult for us to calm our minds? Not just regarding our Buddhist practice, but in everything. Why are we so rarely truly happy, so rarely at ease with ourselves? We have learned that it's because of greed. But why does it seem to be getting so much worse than it was before? Is it just a trick or our memories, or is something going on here?
Of course, there was greed before. Pick up a history book and you'll read all about greed: for wealth, for power, for a multitude of reasons. So what's the difference between then and now?
Television.
With the advent of television, what was to become today's advertising industry had an opportunity to insert themselves into the living room of every person who had disposable income, a criteria neatly met by the presence of the television. Purchase of a television=disposable income. Previously, advertising had been primarily painted on the sides of bars or on simple billboards. Then along came radio, but the effect was still limited.
But with television, visual and audio were combined in ways not previously possible. Advertising was no longer static for movement was added to the audio-visual mix. The new media didn't just say buy a Chevrolet from your local dealer, it showed a happy family driving in their beautiful new, shiny automobile. The implication was clear—buy one of our cars and your family will be the happiest family in the neighborhood. You could "See the USA in your Chevrolet." You could live the American dream. All you had to do was buy something.
Let's fast forward to today. Nielsen Media Research reported that during the 2005-2006 television year, the average American watched television four hours and thirty-five minutes a day. That equates to 20,000 commercials a year! That's more than people decades ago saw in a lifetime.
What's the message of these commercials? Buy me and find happiness. Buy me and be powerful. Buy me and stay young.
Bombarded by all these messages that we have to buy the advertiser's product to have what we want, is it any wonder our minds cannot calm down? That we're never satisfied with what we have? That we're on a never-ending search for today's holy grail—Madison Avenue's hyped dream of happiness.
Want a way to calm down?
Think before you turn on the television. Isn't there a better way to use your valuable time? If you do decide to turn on the TV, head for the good stuff like what is on PBS (educational television). If you watch commercial TV, turn off the sound on the commercials. Don't leave the TV on as background sound to break the silence of being alone. Don't constantly use the TV as an easy baby-sitter for your children. If you do need a short, ocassional break at least select something worthwhile—and commercial free—for them to watch. Keep the TV in the family room, where you can see what the teenagers and younger children are watching.
As with everything you do, choose wisely what you allow into your mind and into the minds of your children.
Reader Comments (3)
Greed comes into our lives in large and small doses. The big one is advertising. Hello TV with all its comercials and messages of you need this otherwise you are lacking something important in your life. Soon enough it will lose its luster but until then we are programmed like machines to do what we are told by our television. We should unplug ourselves.
What about the greed that comes into our life from our friends, neighbors, classmates. Friends tell us about the latest gadgets. Neighbors tell us about the latest handy dandy house toy. Classmates tell us about the electronic equipment they have to do research and communicate with other friends. Why do we need to be so "connected to the internet, telephone, ipod"? What do we get out of it all. Distraction of course. Distraction from ourselves. We keep our selves busy so we can tell other how busy we are and we get to feel important because we are more busy than you are.
Distraction also means disconnection with ourselves. When we are busy being externally focused we feel we are "doing something." Nobody ever wants to be caught doing nothing. We all got yelled at as kids for doing nothing or we were pushed to be "productive citizens." These messages are deep. "For heavens sake get busy."
This habit or behavior more than likely will be transferred when we begin to settle into a Buddhist Practice. Surfing the net translates into surfing for the right Buddha or temple. Keeping busy with our handy dandy skills at research and communication we keep busy going from one practice to another collecting information about Dharma.
We are so busy we just can't practice. We use the easy outs of saying Amitoufou 10 times rather than breaking a sweat and chanting for at least 30 minutes.
It is common knowledge for westerners that the body needs 3 days of cardio workouts for at least 30 minutes each session for the body to receive any benefits. If our body needs this what does this say about our dedication and devotion to the Buddha path. Hmmmm.
We need to connect not with an i-phone, or some other latest and greatest techno something. We need to take the time, to make the time, to chant, chant, chant. No matter what distraction what may appear before us we need to chant. Not just on the day everyone shows up for Sunday practice either.
Why don't westerners settle in? They are practicing what they know. "keep busy for heavens sake or at least look like you are." Habits are hard to change and sometimes they trasfer over completely.
I think not being such an agrerian society has influences us into a faster society. This then translates into nothing is every cultivated deeply. The roots are short not deep and wide.
anybody
Happiness comes from practicing being happy. People don't know happiness is a natural outpouring of the Bodi Path because they stop short of the miracle.
Where there is love there are miracles.
anybody
Good point on the childhood conditioning. I can see it was present to some degree in my childhood and see how prevalent it is today. Parents involve their children in so many activities that the children have no chance to learn how to be comfortable with themselves. They're taught to be so busy on the outside, that they're empty on the inside.
Your point on our departure from an agrarian society is also good. We're no longer taking the time to do things well and to make something worthwhile. We've become a service-oriented culture and forgotten how to be craftsmen in what is really important. As you said, the roots of people today "are short not deep and wide."