Assignment 5 - William Begley - How I Feel About Modern Entertainment

I think the scale of award shows such as the Emmys is only a consequence of the intelligence of the common man. Everybody can understand Avengers, not everyone can understand the importance of theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology. This ease of understanding has always driven the television industry. Simply being able to sit down and press a button to turn to something that can entertain you without any critical thinking draws millions, while I do believe many would applaud the outstanding intelligence of a Nobel prize winner, rarely would any understand enough to enjoy watching it. I don’t believe this is “good” but I don’t think there is anything wrong with people enjoying awards that are simple and extravagant. I do think the importance of a Nobel Prize needs to be a little more accentuated but there is no blame to be placed on the people who cannot understand these prizes.

I also believe that cable TV has devolved to a platform for advertisements and not a quality entertainment source. Service like Netflix or Amazon or Hulu are better sources of shows or movies for most people and it makes almost no sense to remain using cable when these services exist and are cheaper. Using time to watch TV shows is a good use of time in moderation as it can be stress relieving, entertaining, and easy for people. So the source of the shows is the most inexcusable, not the act of watching shows themselves.