Recently, I've been thinking a lot about my classes discussion on television, it's rise and descent as a mass media. I've also just finished the satirical Utopian science fiction novel: Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley. It's clear to see that, while we were discussing the influence of visual's on human minds, I could find quite a few parallels.
The society of Brave New World, is a society of institutionalized commercialism, developed for the ultimate amount of consumption, conformity, and established economic class system's. In the book, they refer to their primary form of entertainment as 'feelies', shows devoid of interpretation, controversy, and overall artistic value, only driving in societies conditioning. I believe that Aldous didn't make similarities between these 'feelies' and television by accident.
While, television isn't institutionalized or devoid of any artistic value, it does work to create an image for the common people to compare themselves to. We often confuse the enticing images on television with real life, and often use it's influence as a reference point when we lack better information. The inherent lack of homosexual's, women, and POC's on television will lead to a lack of reference for people within these groups and other's. And the reference's people are given are often negative and stereotypical.
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