I tied into a channel of old Scholastic Entertainment shows today.
Schoolhouse Rock (history, Conjunction Junction etc)
Voyagers (an hour of history based entertainment for kids).
What happened?
Today’s entertainment is about crime and treachery, deviancy, corruption and with no clear moral or educational aspect. Older shows sometimes use these as literary vehicles. But not as the main theme!
If a society is judged by its entertainment, what do these eras past and present say about us? Entertainment is about what we “crave”. How have we come to crave such things? And is there any weight to our concerns that Society is becoming more and more “what we crave (crime, treachery, corruption, deviancy)?
It’s like a person who goes fishing complaining when they catch fish!
If somebody in space was intercepting our signals, do you think they would be hopeful or concerned for the human race?
What can we do about this?
What should we do about this?
© 2026 – SoulSequel
29 responses to “The Progression/Regression of Entertainment”
I agree, there is a whole lot of crap out there, but with cable where people have hundreds of channels, and now we have streaming TV; we have way more options. That has upped the amount of crap, but it has also increased the amount of amazing content out there. It’s not spoon fed to us like it was when there was only 10 or so channels to pick from.
For example, news: I watch various YouTube channels that focus on news. They will take a topic and spend a large amount of time digging into that one topic, instead of just giving us sound bites so they can take you to a commercial to give you what they are really there for.
I cut cable 5 years ago, and use my AppleTV. I subscribe to as many YouTube channels as someone who has full blown cable.
If someone in space is intercepting our signals, I hope they grab some of mine and see that I watch:
Chris Hadfields, Rare Earth
Playing for Change
Choir! Choir! Choir!
The Young Turks
VICE News
Fierce Love Films
Film Courage
Brave New Films
PBS
Austin City Limits
TasteMade
The Laura Flanders Show
Democracy Now!
….and that’s just some of my YouTube channels
@Gina
have tried youtube channels
80sCommercialVault
engineerguy
YaleCourses
MIT OpenCourseWare
Stanford
all the Ivy leagues have good channels
Matthias Wandel
Omeleto (WARNING:some sad stuff, but I think you’d love it)
MST3K Episodes
https://theconversation.com/us
….& this text site just doesn’t get enough attention, even though it’s all articles from academia without any ads. IFLscience basically was monetizing their articles when they started out because The Conversation is all CreativeCommon.
@luftballooneyegouge youtube definitely is The Thing right now
a lot more to pick and choose from, with supervision for some of course :D
@Gina
We used to have this other option in the old days when there was only crap on TV.
We would go out and do something else!
I wonder if we have become slaves to the convenience of electronic entertainment? All of the hard work of amusing ourselves is already done for us.
@griz Yeah, and the outdoors is still there; and less crowded. :) Everything in moderation. Moderation is something a lot of people do not practice anymore.
@Gina
Moderation is lost the moment responsible use teeters over the edge into addictive abuse.
There’s a real learning curve involved. The teetering point can be very hard to discern and can change over time. Plus observation shows that our species as a whole suffers from addiction problems of one sort or another.
I don’t watch entertainment TV much. I will watch Science and History. There are times that I will watch American Pickers and Pawn Stars for the old stuff that they find or is brought in. Old stuff that I remember seeing, or using in my years. I love Black Sails and Outlander for entertainment. Crime? Treachery? Corruption? Deviancy? I don’t watch such things. I have other things to do. There are news stations and stuff on line to seek out. Immortal Pirate watches movies and I will sit in until there is fighting, shooting, or violence, then I walk out of the room. Life has so much more to it than can be found on a screen.
@ladybarbara
You kids don’t have The Woodwright’s Shop on a loop? How’re y’gonna rebuild the world after the Big-Something-Or-Other if you don’t have that show memorized?
@luftballooneyegouge Immortal Pirate is a woodwright, blacksmith, tinsmith, wheelwright, Cooper, a luthier, and he has cobbled a shoe or two. He has lived as the Amish live. He has skills that go beyond the above mentioned skills. He has performed these skills so much in his life, they are deeply ingrained. I have gardening skills and I am an excellent cook. I sew and I can easily sew by hand. I have many old-world skills. I even hammered the banding on a wood cask in our back yard —- so, I guess I am now a Mini-Cooper.
@luftballooneyegouge I used to watch that show all the time. I like Roy Underhill.
@immortal_pirate Another picture of you with the violin you built in the days of living Amish.
@immortal_pirate
Here’s about 100 episodes.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLI3AdlB5pDXWBniko73hTHcR6K0s_Akp_
@luftballooneyegouge Thank you.
@luftballooneyegouge
(I’ll bet neither of them has a squirrel in their pocket like ol’ Bob Ross. Some serious entertainment value there for both the audience and the host!)
@luftballooneyegouge
I wonder how our ancestors ever managed without the Woodwright’s Shop?
(They probably had to settle for old reruns of The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross!)
@griz , said “I wonder how our……”
No you don’t, but let’s pretend you did.
http://www.woodworkinghistory.com/manuals_1900-before.htm
@luftballooneyegouge
I had no idea you had such a wood, for wood!
And here I come trying to interject my oil paints into the equation!
@ladybarbara
Like you, I simply choose not to participate in the offered mindless and often toxic entertainment.
But do we have a concern for the race? The increase in the popularity of such shows is treacherous: and we still have to live part of our lives in the treacherous reality that so many people are gleefully endorsing and calling forth.
Is there more that we could be doing other than just not partaking?
Is there more that we should be doing?
@griz I don’t see what we can do about it. But think about what happened to Target stores when they were boycotted over the bathroom problem. People have the power of boycotting. However, one little old lady and one trucker doesn’t make for much of a boycott. Society will do what society will do. We can only watch what we want to watch and ignore the rest. It won’t make an impact on the world. Just pop some popcorn and watch the world do what it does. But,…. don’t pop popcorn while you are driving. You are one of the hero truck drivers that move everything we all use. If it was not for truckers, we wouldn’t have groceries or anything else delivered to our stores. There should be more of the movies and shows that are aimed at the truckers. There is Ice Road Truckers. On TV there are channels that show woman’s programming, but I find the Lifetime Channel is so man-bashing that I cannot watch their movies. On the Lifetime Channel, all the movies are about the man being an asshole and the women are victims. I don’t relate to that. I change the channel. If enough women would change the channel, it might make a difference, but it won’t happen.
@ladybarbara
My personal conviction is that I can’t “not try”.
Boycotts and protests can be effective tools for social change. But right now we run to them for everything. It’s like every time something in the house needs adjusting, we run for the sledgehammer!
But the “Big Persuader” more often than not causes only superficial change: better dodges, concealments, and choking nooses of “policy” that over time limit freedom of speech and thought, seed political correctness, and build resentment. (Nobody likes being forced to change by others: and fear is a poor long-time motivator of change).
A far better motivator of change is education. We can be teachers of the things we see and know and have experienced. Use the carrot instead of the stick.
Teaching is a “relationship process”, and certainly involves more work and frustration: but more endearing reward for both.
Doing nothing is a divorce (isolate) reaction.
“The stick” is just a control tactic. And it ceases to work with the mule becomes too calloused to care or decides to kick back!
@ladybarbara
I watch and even enjoy some movies with physical conflict. I don’t doubt that it’s “a guy thing”!
But there’s a difference between the movie having it, and just being an excuse for it.
And I don’t mind movies with emotional conflict in them, but I don’t seem to be getting as much out of them as my lady friends do. I have no doubt that this is “a lady thing”! And likewise, there is a difference between a movie that uses it and one that overdoses on it!
I had some questionable content growing up. Fat Albert had a message, but what caricatures! 20th century cartoons are pretty accurately satired by Itchy & Scratchy.
Kids still have those old shows, but I don’t think they watch them or the new shows all that much. All the boys are screaming at each other through the interwebs while simulating killing each other over & over & over & over & over, etc ad nauseam……
I have no idea what girls do, but I suspect they stuff their bed with pillows in the shape of themselves sleeping, and wait in the closet with a knife for some screaming boy to attack their pillows.
This planet is literally quarantined. You just have to read with synonyms & imagination.
https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4902/ch7.htm
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19720022414
The punishment for coming to or leaving “Earth” is “sterilization” by being microwaved in a warehouse sized microwave-oven and converted to syngas by plasma gasification. They don’t want this kinda crazy goin’ galactic!
@luftballooneyegouge
There are no shortage of sci-fi shows where inter-galactic Civilizations have placed the Earth on quarantine, lest our toxicity spread!
My sense is that we are about to see a paradigm shift that will occur sooner rather than later.
Maybe the violence of today’s entertainment will be replaced by more experiential entertainment. Although there will still be people who like the idea of shooting at people in video games, I think there might be a shift with virtual reality, not to mention drone technology that man will soon be able to virtually experience flight, or really anything as if being there. Maybe celebrities, who eventually fall from grace will be replaced by an evening walking through a pyramid, a Caribbean beach, a walk up the Eiffel Tower or even a hike to base camp Everest, or a walk on the Great Wall of China.
I just did something new on Friday night. I was advised via social media of a one time showing of a specific Australian documentary and the local theater. I called up a buddy that I knew had a specific in the activity being documented and off we went.
I’m so bored by the blow em up, shoot em up and because of Netflix I can back out from any movie start and look for an alternative and virtually no cost.
My main point is that options associated with entertainment that goes way beyond the current assortment of visual is probably nearing an end.
@spitfire3dc
Any change will have to be in what people crave; not in what the networks offer. Because they will continue to offer what the people crave no matter how toxic.
And to change What We crave we first need to recognize our craving. It is here that we start entering the addiction paradigm.
The entertainment industry will not find the more wholesome fare profitable unless enough people kick their addiction for the dark and sensational. (catering to the base, animalistic senses)
@griz Good point. So what do you think people crave at the moment? Something that appears worse than their own day to day?
Maybe the reality genre triggered a sense of genuine relationship and although one sided, maybe that is more than what people actually experience in real life?
People seem to establish real relationships. How many times do you thin Kevin Spacey had to say, “I’m not Frank Underwood”or Jason Aexander had to say, “I’m not George Costanza, but I guess they reap what they sow.
@spitfire3dc
I see us as craving “comparative righteousness”.
If we can focus the light or the lens on something worse than our daily experience (or even “ourself”!), we can get a hit of “good feelings” for ourselves.
It’s interesting that you would bring up the craving of relationship [with others]. This too often gets confused with craving control [over others].
This boffo mix-up can be seen in everything from toxic and co-dependent couplings, to the various atrocities of abuse one upon another.
They are not about “relationship” (or love) . . . but about “control”.
I think it is because of all of the trauma that has occurred and does occur in society; crime, rape, child abuse, domestic violence, and so forth. we crave what is familiar. the brain works in patterns. there is also an element, I think, of trying to understand, trying to figure something out.
how can we fix it? therapy for a lot of people. get in it and stay in it.
I would also suggest policy changes in schools. here in America schools are geared towards white culture, not taking into account all the diversity that is present in schools. this harms the society.
@Scarlett
A valid point about our craving the familiar. But there’s another dynamic at work. Not everyone who craves and watches violence and abuse has been a victim of it.
Things that are darkly sensational have an appeal because they provide a platform for comparative/ competitive self-righteousness. Everyone has dark and regrettable things in their past; perhaps in their present; and quite likely in their future. But if our feelings can feast on the spectacle of someone else doing far worse, we feel Justified.
This doesn’t discount what has been called “the cycle of sin” where evil functions almost as an infection, propagating spreading and recreating itself. (Broken trust spawns mistrust, violence begets violence, the abused returning to abusers)
This is why I now crave the spiritual path. Properly applied, it short-circuits the cycle of sin with forgiveness and a robust healing/immune response: and defeats the need to compare our imperfection against the imperfection in others.