In 1928 when Baird did the first transmition of moving images, London to New York City, he had no clue that this discovery would have such an impact on the society. The television has been living between the society for a long time, and it has changed quite a bit the way mans act and behave.
For a start, people had to change their way of organizing and distributing their house elements. An extra room had to be built, on the beginning, so the whole family could enjoy quality time in front of the television. It was considered this new room, or the Tv room was known as the place where the family could spend time together after a stressful day of work. But now a days, each person wants to have his own television, because of different tastes when chosen the right channel, emphasizing no more a common activity but an individual one.
Neil Postman on an interview that he gave to CBC says that television has changed a lot in 25 years and that it is a different kind of entertainment when comparing to the cinema or the theater. The thing is television is in almost everyone’s homes and is consulted for almost all types of information, politics or cooking tips. Relating to this, he affirms that ´´Television has become a kind of analogue to what the medieval church was in say the 14th or 15th centuries. For anything to be legitimate it has to come through television.´´
Not only to be legitimate but to be taken as a real issue. If there is a social problem but the whole society pretend it is not even there. But once it is announced on a television network this old problem becomes a new and a relevant issue. We can see that from Magic Johnson´s case, when he announced that he had SIDA. This was a topic that was barely commented on the society, and after a famous person announced that on the television, it increased the numbers of calls for a SIDA foundation and it was no longer a huge shame.
The status of famous people and how that affected the society is another huge change that can be pointed out. The persons who work on a radio that is also a known kind of media are not as well recognized as the ones who work on television.
The image created on the atmosphere of the television is not a realistic, but an illusionary one. A lot of thing that we take as a real thing actually are Make-Believe. And not only talking about the information that are transmitted to the viewers but the most important thing that is worked now a days inside the television is image.
The image that the television is transmitting now a days affect on the way the society acts because everyone want to look like the actress of X film or have a boyfriend that looks like the actor of the most famous series or even worst, want to have the same life style as they show in TV shows. According to Neil Postman ´´ Images overwhelm the words. And therefore this is the strength of television. ´´
Television news some times has a serious side, when showing the conflicts and wars, but some times tend to defend the point of view of one and not being a neutral. The reason why television can not be serious all the time is because it deals so much with moving images. And the problem with this is that people think less and have automatic thoughts without reflecting or even arguing about it.
But television is not all bad, as Camille Paglia affirms. It can have its educative side as sports. They can teach us a lot of mathematics , physics abilities and human behavior .
Another issue that is always in debate is who television changed the childhood. Children used to play more healthy games, outside the house and with other kids. But now a days, they rather stay at home, watching a movie, a TV program or playing videogame, since this is another facility television brought to kids life.
A lot of specialists an doctors affirm that television has a bad influence in the kids. They became more violent and have strange actions. But it is not true. People are not only influenced by technologies , they are influenced by the world that surrounds them, like school, family, friends …
So when Marshal McLuhan applied his theories about the technologies, it can be analyzed in the television too. His 4 laws; extension , reversion, recuperation and ´´oldness´´, show the change between television and other medias. Television is the extension of some actions of the man. It can be applied to the way he used to distract and use his free time, and how he gets access to information. The oldness. Is how radio and news paper kind of disappeared with the television invention .It did reverse the way people used to know about information . And recuperation, is that television does use some aspects of the radio, as in the news paper.
So the impact television had in the society is really clear, ass all medias had ass well. The thing is television is on our lifes for so many years, that we can’t imagine our life’s without it.
Internet is maybe the next media that stilled some of television´s space, but it doesn’t offer the same comfort as the television does. Now a days people are talking about an interactive television that would gather the good points of television and internet.
As all medias, television did had a huge influence in the society. Not only on the economic, but on the way people act and behave. One of Postman most important concept is that there is no problem with adoring and being in the middle of technology if you can see all the benefits and the detriments too.