Are You A Zero TeeVee-er?

"For Phelps, it's less about saving money than choice. She says she'd rather spend her time productively and not get "sucked into" shows she'll regret later." [emphasis added]

That's right, there's even a name for it now.  We are called the Zero TVers - people who don't watch, don't pay and don't follow traditional TeeVee habits.  What's more, we don't miss it and don't care about it.

Why pay for something I never use?  I don't have time for TeeVee, and when I have time for a little entertainment, I pull out an e-book, listen music or watch one of the 500 classic movies in my collection.  There is nothing in the insipid universe of broadcast/traditional TeeVee that even remotely interests me.  In fact, the last show I remember really following religiously was David Lynch's Twin Peaks, though I confess to the occasional Star Trek TNG or Stargate SG-1.

For the most part, though, I have always found reading to be far more enjoyable, and I can do it even when the power goes out, which is a rather common occurrence here in the Archipelago.

I pay for broadband internet access, yet despite the wealth of passive viewing activities available at my fingertips, I still prefer to browse the Gutenberg library or listen to interviews with thinking people, like those available on Radio Far Side.

It used to be I was a freak of nature.  One couldn't join in the office scuttlebutt without enduring extended conversations about inane TeeVee programs that I never watched, nor had interest to follow.  However, according to the article linked at the top, there are 5 million US households, and many more globally, I'm sure, that are turning away from 'traditional' viewing habits.

And this is scaring the shit out of the 'old media'.  Couldn't happen to a finer bunch of a**holes, as far as I'm concerned.

For two generations (at least in the States), a cabal of corporate interests has had a monopoly on the eyeballs and brains of millions of people.  They could fill our heads with their ideas and create demand for their products by putting us in alpha-wave states and zapping messages directly past our conscious defenses.  Their news outlets were the gold standard of social awareness, and they thoroughly abused us by telling us what to think.

Websites like this one, that aim to invoke thought rather than stifle it, are springing up like clover in the alfalfa.  The various video outlets, like vimeo.com, are delivering quality content produced far outside the constraints of corporate mind-control.  About as close to MSM as many people come is scanning the Drudge headlines before the first auto-refresh.

The monolithic media are scrambling to find a way to lure you back.  As the linked article says, this topic is one of the top priorities at NAB this year.  They are using shocking and lurid content.  They are trying new gee-gaws like 3-D.  They are testing pay-per-view sites in various pricing schemes to see which will attract the most eyeballs.

But with nearly half the global population online, and a significant number of those producing free or very low-cost quality content, who needs the high production-value mind-control rubbish foisted on us by the monolithic media?  Granted, there's a lot of equally useless crap out there, like teenagers lighting farts and such, but we control the clicks and the time and the content we will consume.

And a growing number of folks are opting for intelligent, informative content that by-passes the couch-potato crowd and adds quality to our limited amount of free time.

This is the revolution of which I often speak here.  Since the introduction of the radio set and the on-air soap operas, mystery shows and gangster goop a century ago, we the people have been immobile and willing victims of a technology turned against us.

Finally, at the moment when the monolithic media thought that they'd be springing the final trap with hundreds of channels, 3-D, HiDef, digital pablum, the crowd is turning away.  We have become jaded, overwhelmed and under-served by all this rubbish pawned off as entertainment.  And we're turning it off in growing numbers.

Think about the true depth of the revolution.  In the 80s, when I was getting my degree in media, you needed a massive camera, backpack recorder and a crew of three or more just to capture the video.  Then you had to have a million-dollar suite of machines to edit tape-to-tape, then the distribution was tightly controlled by the very few broadcast outlets that had very limited open slots for which you competed with hundreds of other producers.

Now, I can capture far better video using a tablet that has a couple of dozen other functions, as well, and fits in a satchel.  When I have the raw footage, I can transfer the files to my laptop where I can edit, sweeten, add titles and animation, and any other content I want.  Then I can upload it to any number of free sites or my own server and distribute it to the entire world.  And all with a crew of one for roughly $10,000, hardware and software included.

And I'm not limited to that.  I can write and publish books, news sites, entertainment in any media all from my humble little home office in Jakarta, or even the LFS World Headquarters in Borneo and South Java.  All with a crew of one for an amortized investment of roughly $2,000 per year over five years.

Simply revolutionary.

And this is only the open market.  There are many dark basements on the internet where even more subversive content lurks, though subversive is only a matter of perspective.  Speaking out against government idiocy and corruption is subversive in many jurisdictions.

The raw power now available and in the hands of the masses is astounding by historical measures.  The access to real information and knowledge is beyond comparison.  The ability of the individual to affect real change is magnified beyond all traditional means of control.  And this genie can't be recanted.  It is out in the wild and short of shutting down every possible outlet by pulling the power plug on the globe, it can't be stopped.

And perhaps that's why 'they' push global warming and limited resources so hard.  It is their one trump card left.  The only way they can stop, at least in their minds, this revolution is to literally pull the plug.

This revolution is taking place in the minds of the masses.  It is not a shooting war.  It is not a destructive event.  It is nothing like what has come before.

It is the revolution of ideas.

'They' are trying very hard to make it a shooting war because they can win that one.  When it comes to the war of ideas and attitudes the field of battle is much harder to define, much less engage the enemy.

The article that opened this screed is an admission on the part of the monolithic media that they are losing the war, and that they have no idea how to turn the tide back in their favor.  The front is far too broad and as deep as the imagination can go.  There is no longer a single rabbit hole to fall into, but millions.

To join this revolution requires a single, stunning act of defiance: turn it off.  Become a Zero TeeVee-er!