by Andrew Post

Created on: May 02, 2008

Modern society is addicted to media-driven entertainment. This is the reason that there are televisions in people's bedrooms. The reason that cell phones and hand-held devices that can download music, video and games are profitable propositions for electronics companies. The reason that media themselves are blending together: cameras and music players embedded in cell phones, and television shows and movies uploaded to YouTube (which, according to unofficial sources, has hundreds of millions of viewers every day and is available in twelve languages). Contemporary society is gaga for the incessant flow of images and noises provided to it with almost absurd ease by ubiquitous electronic sources.

Media is pervasive. Some might even call it invasive. It's everywhere: on billboards next to highways, on brochures and leaflets sitting in waiting rooms, on television screens in shopping malls and bars, printed on the sides of buses and taxicabs, sprawled across the sides of buildings and scribbled on sidewalks, and (of course) flashing on every computer screen. Driven with redoubtable force by an enormous commercial industry, media has trickled into every nook and cranny of our public and private lives. We are assailed by advertising on those billboards, brochures, buses and buildings. What TV shows are coming out and when. What beauty products are best to use, as advertised by a Photoshopped model's face with all the pores digitally removed. What radio stations have the most attitude. Which energy drinks will turn you into a force of nature. Which initiative to vote "no" on. Which dentist has the most trustworthy face. Which insurance agency has the most personal approach. And on, and on, and on.

With all that media flying around, perhaps it was unavoidable that it would seep into the fabric of society and cement itself there like a week-old drop of barbecue sauce. Conditioned to believe that it's trendy and hip to have a cell phone that plays movies and a television set in every room, society complied. Already addicted to reality TV, prime time sitcoms, the latest music videos, celebrity gossip, home shopping, and other such programming, the public wants ever more and more. Entertainment-related reality shows and toutedly hard-edged documentaries about dangerous jobs are the current trend. We can't seem to get enough of crab fishermen struggling against the elements in the Bering Sea, or singers and performers competing in front of excoriating judges for 15 minutes

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