We are more desensitised aren't we?

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Has anyone noticed that tv channels are showing movies and shows that used to be shown at night time only, say 10 years ago or more, in the day time now.

Ive seen shows like scrubs, friends, etc shown in the daytime on the weekend. Also, I notice they do the same with movies that used to be considered only for mature audiences. Put it this way, there was recently a Michael Douglas movie shown one weekend, or at least during the afternoon anyway. 'Nuff said. Some of them contain swearing and violence.

I think its stupid, as kids will be exposed to even more programs talking about sex, violence and swearing all that.

I just saw in Scrubs JD (I think?) ask one of the nurses if she has had sex with her boyfriend yet. And then the nurse replied something like, 'I like to make them (men) wait until they think they will never get any"… and then, …"oh, (I’ll make them wait)about one or two months.

Our kids are being bombarded with all this stuff. Have you guys noticed it?

I also noticed a video game in a department store with a rating saying that it contains a sex scene! Even animation is going bad.
 
Also, ads. Im noticing that they are pushing the boundaries more and more.
 
That is exactly right. The decline began at the end of the 1960s and with the closure of the Legion of Decency in 1970, which was started by the Catholic Church.

I watched people turn into Hippies: smoking dope, shacking up, engaging in sex with anyone. Soon, TV had a little more about sex, then a little more and a little more.

In the 1970s, so-called adult bookstores sprang up all over the country. Magazines appeared that were graphic.

1980s Porn in hotels and on cable.

1990s Partial nudity and profanity on NYPD Blue. Porn on the internet.

2000s You can’t tell a Christian from a non-Christian.

The solution? Turn off the TV. Read a newspaper. Listen to the radio. Pick up a Catholic newspaper and Catholic magazines. Turn away from the secular paganism running rampant through the media. Instead of a videogame, sit down as a family and play a boardgame with your kids. Go for a walk with them. Take them to the park. Pray.

God bless,
Ed
 
very much so - I stay away from television now as much of its doesn’t interest me.
 
If you go long enough without watching TV, you won`t even miss it anymore. In fact, you will glance at the odd programme and you will wonder how anybody actually manages to watch the stuff, and you will wonder how you ever managed to watch it yourself.
 
Bresinain said:
If you go long enough without watching TV, you won`t even miss it anymore. In fact, you will glance at the odd programme and you will wonder how anybody actually manages to watch the stuff, and you will wonder how you ever managed to watch it yourself.
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I got rid of my TV. What a relief.
 
edwest2 said:
That is exactly right. The decline began at the end of the 1960s and with the closure of the Legion of Decency in 1970, which was started by the Catholic Church.

I watched people turn into Hippies: smoking dope, shacking up, engaging in sex with anyone. Soon, TV had a little more about sex, then a little more and a little more.

In the 1970s, so-called adult bookstores sprang up all over the country. Magazines appeared that were graphic.

1980s Porn in hotels and on cable.

1990s Partial nudity and profanity on NYPD Blue. Porn on the int
2000s You can’t tell a Christian from a non-Christian.

The solution? Turn off the TV. Read a newspaper. Listen to the radio. Pick up a Catholic newspaper and Catholic magazines. Turn away from the secular paganism running rampant through the media. Instead of a videogame, sit down as a family and play a boardgame with your kids. Go for a walk with them. Take them to the park. Pray.

God bless,
Ed
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(I didn’t mean to delete part of your post…) I have never heard of the Legion of Decency, but your post seems so true. Especially the parts about doing more as a family. I was a kid in the 70’s, & back then we couldn’t have imagined the level of sex & violence that is on TV at 7:00pm. (&4:00pm)

I’m afraid that turning it off is not enough. I have always been very careful about what my kids see, but I worry about their peers & how they will impact my kids. So many parents let their kids see this stuff. Even seemingly good parents. My generation is troubled enough. I worry about a generation that grows up with CSI & Sex in the City.
 
It seems to be creeping in everywhere. I spend what seems to be an enormous amount of time searching out good books and movies for our kids to read and watch. I know they will see things at other people’s houses, but I am hoping that if they get enough good stuff and a good education about how the real world is operating, they’ll be ok.
 
As Catholics, we need to approach this problem with faith. As parents, you need to work at guarding your children, and educating them about what’s out there and the proper Christian response to it.

Yes, there will be some aspects of so-called popular culture that should be off limits to them and you should explain why that is. This current culture is desensitized to sin - everything is OK, especially sex. As parents, you need to cultivate relationships with people who share your beliefs and values. You need to raise your children right. If you teach them certain words are bad at 10 years old, don’t let them think that all goes away when they become adults. That, somehow, adult entertainment, or porn, is somehow OK because they’re adults. Drinking and smoking are bad as well.

God bless,
Ed
 
I seen this morning an advert for a show which included two women leaning in towards each other to kiss.

I also seen in a morning show “family-friendly” nude photgraphs of a celeb from a magazine.
 
What does “more” desensitized mean exactly. I mean I know there are things that I’m supposedto be upset by but only on an academic level. I’m numb and numbness makes you bored. All I know is that because I’m so “more” desensitized that I’m more bored. And it isn’t even just “entertainment” that numbs me.
I grew in DC. I lived next door to an Ex con who got shot in broad daylight and rows of halfways houses full of screaming lunatics. I knew all the ins and outs of sex before I was eight. The news shows on tv report all these mass school shootings and war victims in other countries. Sometimes I couldn’t get to sleep at night because of police helicopters looking for escaped cons.
But after awhile you just “adjust” to it. You get bombarded by things that SHOULD shock you, you just don’t care. So I go looking for things…any thing that would cause me to FEEL something. I just spent a semester in Japan. I should have felt ecstatic or excited or something but only felt moderately entertained. I volunteer through the campus ministry. Still bored.
Some people say helping people makes them feel good or whatever. I feel NOTHING. I’m in a wilderness club that goes on great outdoor trips…bored. I’ve probably done two lifetimes worth of stuff in the mere 20 years of my existence. And I don’t necesssarilly mean bad things.

But now…I’m just jaded. Desensitized? You bet ya. But not just by all the negative fictional shows that are on TV. I’m desensitived by LIFE. My mother only allowed us to watch tv on weekends. And even then we spent it out and about doing stuff.
My parents were all about opportunities and making us well rounded. I’ve done practically everything under the sun.
I also read alot of books that exposed me to anything I wanted to know or was curious about. I knew things that most 6 year olds aren’t taught until they’re 14. I was wierd and precocious. I was also very questioning of my authority figures.
When natural dissasters and acts of terrorism happen. I just Shrugg my shoulders. We weren’t that far from the pentagon when 9/11 happened and we were in the same area as the Snipers. I went to schools with metal detectors and xray machines (which I learned how to trick btw). Kids got knocked up so much that we had a daycare center downstairs in the HS.

I think you guys are focusing way more on fictional entertainment and less on what’s going on outside your window. Unless of course you live in the boonies and your only exposure to negativity is through fabricated scenarious through the idiot box, you have so little to complain about. Just turn of the tv.
You can’t turn off real life and after living with it for so long, if you could, you wouldn’t even feel compelled to.

Dude I’m so bored that I was actually dissapointed when my MRI came back saying that I DIDN’T have a mass in my brain. I’m so bored that I actually kind of wanted to have a brain tumor. can you believe that?
 
Naztakuan said:
What does “more” desensitized mean exactly. I mean I know there are things that I’m supposedto be upset by but only on an academic level. I’m numb and numbness makes you bored. All I know is that because I’m so “more” desensitized that I’m more bored. And it isn’t even just “entertainment” that numbs me.
I grew in DC. I lived next door to an Ex con who got shot in broad daylight and rows of halfways houses full of screaming lunatics. I knew all the ins and outs of sex before I was eight. The news shows on tv report all these mass school shootings and war victims in other countries. Sometimes I couldn’t get to sleep at night because of police helicopters looking for escaped cons.
But after awhile you just “adjust” to it. You get bombarded by things that SHOULD shock you, you just don’t care. So I go looking for things…any thing that would cause me to FEEL something. I just spent a semester in Japan. I should have felt ecstatic or excited or something but only felt moderately entertained. I volunteer through the campus ministry. Still bored.
Some people say helping people makes them feel good or whatever. I feel NOTHING. I’m in a wilderness club that goes on great outdoor trips…bored. I’ve probably done two lifetimes worth of stuff in the mere 20 years of my existence. And I don’t necesssarilly mean bad things.

But now…I’m just jaded. Desensitized? You bet ya. But not just by all the negative fictional shows that are on TV. I’m desensitived by LIFE. My mother only allowed us to watch tv on weekends. And even then we spent it out and about doing stuff.
My parents were all about opportunities and making us well rounded. I’ve done practically everything under the sun.
I also read alot of books that exposed me to anything I wanted to know or was curious about. I knew things that most 6 year olds aren’t taught until they’re 14. I was wierd and precocious. I was also very questioning of my authority figures.
When natural dissasters and acts of terrorism happen. I just Shrugg my shoulders. We weren’t that far from the pentagon when 9/11 happened and we were in the same area as the Snipers. I went to schools with metal detectors and xray machines (which I learned how to trick btw). Kids got knocked up so much that we had a daycare center downstairs in the HS.

I think you guys are focusing way more on fictional entertainment and less on what’s going on outside your window. Unless of course you live in the boonies and your only exposure to negativity is through fabricated scenarious through the idiot box, you have so little to complain about. Just turn of the tv.
You can’t turn off real life and after living with it for so long, if you could, you wouldn’t even feel compelled to.

Dude I’m so bored that I was actually dissapointed when my MRI came back saying that I DIDN’T have a mass in my brain. I’m so bored that I actually kind of wanted to have a brain tumor. can you believe that?
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Forgive me, but this frightens me. Bored people sometimes do things–bad things–in an attempt to feel something, anything.

PLEASE, please, seek help! Even if you are poor, there are ways that you can get counselling. Perhaps you are depressed–my husband and daughter suffer from clinical depression, and the meds have helped them to be happy and productive.

You must have respect and love for God and people, or you wouldn’t be on this Catholic Forum. So please honor God and others by seeking help for yourself.
 
I certainly agree that we can turn off the TV and save ourselves from sin, but this is a simplistic, almost self-centered solution. I am reminded of the story of Elijah fleeing from his enemies and hiding in a cave, or Jonah running away on a ship. In both cases, God brought them back to real-life again.

Our society is dying spiritually as our culture disintegrates. I think we should do more than just live in sin-free cocoons and ignore everyone outside of our cocoon.

Like David, we shouldn’t flee our giant, but march out to meet him and destroy him.

There are still “decency” federations around that put pressure on network executives to clean up television and other media. Join them.

And even if you don’t join an organization, you can still carry on your own letter-writing campaign, protesting “bad” tv and praising “good” tv.

If the offensive tv is a commercial, then write to the company and tell them that you are not purchasing their product. This approach has had results; some offensive commercials are removed very quickly.

There are various actors and other people in the entertainment industry who consistently produce righteous and even godly work (e.g., Jay Russell, producer of My Dog Skip and Ladder 49, has stated that he will only produce family-friendly films. e.g., the company that produced the Chronicles of Narnia and *Bridge to Terabithia * has consistently produced family-friendly and accurate films of works of children’s literature). Even if you are not a tv-film fan, it is good to at least be aware of these works and recommend them to people who do watch TV and films.

The current issue of Christianity Today features an article about the current crop of pro-life movies. These movies are there because fans go see them and they make money. This means that there will probably be even more pro-life TV and movies. Money talks–if something is GOOD, we need to support it so that more GOOD is produced. Supply and demand.

The Unit is a fantastic tv show that hasn’t been renewed yet and probably won’t be. According to the fan-boards, the main reason this series hasn’t been renewed is that it is blatently PRO U.S.A. and pro-military (without glorifying the military or war). The Unit “offends” liberal Hollywood establishments. Where are the Christians? Why aren’t people writing the networks and asking that this great show be renewed?

One more approach is to become part of the industry and/or encourage your children to become part of the industry. My daughter is a professional stage manager, and she is seeking involvement with the television/film industry. She wants to do good things. It’s amazing what one Christian can do even in Hollywood or New York.

Sure, you can turn off the TV. But always remember that most of your neighbors aren’t turning off their tvs. Those awful shows and commercials will shape their lives and the culture all around you. Eventually, you will have to interact with this culture. IMO, it is our Christian responsibility to do whatever we can to be lights in the darkness and influence our culture for the GOOD, not just hide out from those things that are destroying our culture.

BTW, I realize that it is very wise to shield children from the bad media, at least until they are old enough to have a well-formed conscience and make godly decisions. I don’t believe it is possible to “shield” teenagers from popular culture. If you are reading this on a computer right now, your teenager has access to popular culture. Don’t kid yourself.
 
Cat said:
Forgive me, but this frightens me. Bored people sometimes do things–bad things–in an attempt to feel something, anything.

PLEASE, please, seek help! Even if you are poor, there are ways that you can get counselling. Perhaps you are depressed–my husband and daughter suffer from clinical depression, and the meds have helped them to be happy and productive.

You must have respect and love for God and people, or you wouldn’t be on this Catholic Forum. So please honor God and others by seeking help for yourself.
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I’m not depressed. I just don’t believe all the hype about being so dang enthusiastic all the time. That’s not who I am. When you live in the hood surrounded by constant negativity, you just adjust to it. Otherwise you’d go insane.
 
Naztakuan said:
I’m not depressed. I just don’t believe all the hype about being so dang enthusiastic all the time. That’s not who I am. When you live in the hood surrounded by constant negativity, you just adjust to it. Otherwise you’d go insane.
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Who is telling you that you have to be enthusiastic all the time?:confused:
 
I am encouraging people I know not to buy certain books, magazines, movies and CDs. I’m telling them they are filled with profanity and dysfunctionality and immorality. That having the TV on all the time is a form of addictive behavior.

I’m sending e-mails to the FCC. I’m contacting book publishers when I see offensive content in their books.

There is such a thing as right and wrong. And every time a law is passed regarding behavior, somebody’s idea of morality is being legislated.

The Catholic Church had an organization called the Legion of Decency from 1933-1970. It told Catholics how to regard movies, TV shows and radio programs. It encouraged them to live out a moral Catholic life and to avoid immorality coming from the media. Each one of us, today, need to decide to avoid immorality in the media every day. To tell our kids what’s going on out in the world. How maybe-ism and who-knows-ism, and who-can-say-ism is confusing them about what is right and what is wrong. Teach them the Ten Commandments. Tell them how they apply to their lives today.

God bless,
Ed
 
I’ve been without TV for 14 years. Here’s what you GET from being TV-free:

(a) more time for friends and family and yourself
(b) a less messy house
(c) you enjoy your talks with people more; people become more interesting (kind of like how ex-smokers taste food better)
(d) fewer dumb thoughts, less feelings of envy and depression

I DO think we’re getting numb. I walked by an Abercrombie and Fitch store recently: big black and white photo of two guys running through a field mooning some people behind them. . . huge photo right at the store entrance.

Boy, did I hoot out loud at that one! 🙂
 
deb1 said:
Who is telling you that you have to be enthusiastic all the time?:confused:
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I’m just one of those people who have a naturally darker glommy personality. No amount of medication could really change that. I’m not depressed so much as I’m bored and jaded. I don’t “need help” like so many concerned perky people think. Pople market antidepressants like it’s friggin candy. I’d like to avoid all mind altering psychotropic drugs if I can help it. And i don’t need someone who probably has no medical education accusing me of having a serious mental illness. taht’s another problem that bothers me in todays society.

It’s like “brave new world”. So the tv makes us desensitized does it? Gee maybe it’s all the tons and tons of medication we consume to avoid actually FEELING anything. Prozac doesn’t make people happy, it just stops the pain so you can function semi-normally. I’ve known people who depended so much on their anti-depressants because they simply didn’t want to deal with the pain. eventually they quit because even though they weren’t depressed, they were at a constant state of dullness. They felt they were using them as a crutch. There is no magic happy pill.
The very idea is absurd. If a pill did that, it would just result in a state of withdrawal making you even more depressed after you stopped taking it. The only pills I can think of that does that is Ecstasy and most uppers. And those are illegal. Although I hear the military may be soon using “E” as a treatment for PTSD in soldiers.

I’m already numb. I don’t need a medication that makes me feel even more numb or worse, throwing off my brain chemistry making me depressed. A faulty dose of anti–depressants can make you quite suicidal. I’ve seen it happen to friends.
Besides, I find my gloomy outlook alot more conducive to my creativity. My best work is always made during the darkest times of the year. When the weather is almost morbid. Which is great in the West New york area. It’s almost like being in a gothic movie. The sun almost never shines and the weather is always fierce.The sun doesn’t really come out until May.
 
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