The dumbing down of so-called eductional tv. So sad, to me.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

Survivor was where it went mainstream.

But I think maybe America's Funniest Home Videos might be the earliest beginnings.

a reply to: ketsuko

This article dates reality television all the way back to the 40's and Candid Camera.

The Real History of Reality TV Or, How Allen Funt Won the Cold War

a reply to: Domo1

Let me explain in another way what I mean. A recent Canadian panel discussed the ever-decreasing number of viewers overall. They acknowledged that top quality programming is decreasing while inane reality TV is commanding more viewership. The costs involved in the production of top-notch programs is becoming more and more prohibitive because advertisers and sponsors are going where the viewer numbers are. No one is faulting them for that, but they find that the balance has been tipped in the last couple of years and that the decrease in overall viewers is caused by this imbalance.

a reply to: droid56

I'm with you - I remember thinking it was so neat to get to stay up and watch the nature documentaries that were playing on Discovery, Animal Planet, History Channel (I mean, even the Sci-Fi channel sometimes did documentaries on controversial topics).

I also remember a transition, where it became slightly less educational (but far from dumb) programming - Instead of a documentary, you had people going on a safari trip. Or, they would be out eating weird foods, or mining for gems in various areas (as well as hunting storms).

And then we come to now, where it's all about hillbilly's hunting ducks (or bigfoot), "exciting things" like monster truck rallies, wrestling (how exactly does this relate to Sci-Fi?), and documentaries filled with completely false or misleading information (Such as the Megalodon documentary).

Just like with anything - channels are trying to move with peoples' interests, which is why a lot of this junk is on there.

I turned the TV off - and probably saved a few braincells from dying off.

-fossilera

a reply to: ketsuko

I am glad you got something out of cooking shows and i am sure their are many like you . But sadly not for me .

a reply to: Aliensun

I saw two very good documentaries recently on the UK channel, Channel 4. One was the film of the days that saw Edward Snowden reveal the massive spying scandal to the press from a hotel room, which for all that it was shot nearly entirely inside a hotel room, was great to see, and gave us a look at what it was like to be there in that moment. The other was a documentary called Immigration Street, which AIMED to take a look at a certain road in Britain, which has the most diverse population of any street in the country. The entire local community rallied round, in indignation about the title of the program, and the intent of the film makers in titling it so, and the documentary makers were actually run out of town by a collective effort of both genuine community action, and street level thuggery.

However, the really great thing about that documentary is that in the most ethnically diverse street in the country, where you could assume that there would be the most division, and the whole street rallied to protect the community from what they saw as an attempt to divide them for the purposes of entertainment. It was good to see that, and I imagine that many people who saw that documentary would have expected a very different outcome.

I have to say, it was the most sterling example of successful multiculturalism that I have ever seen in my life, and made me very proud to be British!

a reply to: TrueBrit

It is interesting what you say about communities rallying around , especially small ones . Back in 2000 a small airline here had a plane crash outside of whyalla in South Australia . As tragic as this was the really sad thing was the death of a married couple leaving 3 girls . They were farming people and the whole community helped get the crops off and anything else that needed doing . But prior to that there was the funeral . As you can imagine with 3 orphaned girls the media were all over it . Nothing sells like a good tragedy with a twist , right . Well all the community gathered at the funeral as you would expect , but i was amazed at the outright hostility towards the media . Same people that watch the news every night , same news that is usually full of tragedy . I guess news reporting is ok , unless you are the centre of it .

Nothing to do with dumbing down i know .

a reply to: learnatic

To this day I still choose not to buy petrol from BP because of what they did in the Mexican gulf a few years ago. It has meant that I drive past BP stations selling petrol cheaper than I pay for it

Do you also refuse to buy batteries made by Union Carbide in the wake of the Bhopal disaster in India in 1985?

originally posted by: fossilera
a reply to: droid56



Just like with anything - channels are trying to move with peoples' interests, which is why a lot of this junk is on there.

I turned the TV off - and probably saved a few braincells from dying off.

-fossilera

Which is weird because my interests are still animals, space, nature and learning all about them. Not sure where the reality crap came from. We have plenty of other channels with those, so why not save the learning channels for actual learning? (Besides obvious dumbing down of society by TPTB of course)