Blogs

Sex, Drugs, and Boredom

Why we should take entertainment more seriously than we do.

by Peter G. Stromberg

Peter Stromberg is an Anthropologist and author of Caught in Play: How entertainment works on you. See full bio

June 24, 2009, Media

Comments on "Entertainment, Consumption and Shadow Values"

Entertainment, Consumption and Shadow Values

By Peter G. Stromberg, Ph.D. on June 24, 2009 in Sex, Drugs, and Boredom

I'd like to point out--in case you've missed it--that most people in our society have to work pretty hard to make a living. And in order to work pretty hard, they have to cultivate values like discipline, diligence, stamina, responsibility and so on. Read More

It's Just Entertainment

Submitted by Terry on June 24, 2009 - 9:54pm.

"Because we have convinced ourselves that
the values we indulge in entertainment aren't
real, because entertainment is just play, we
feel just fine about holding these values and
denying them at the same time."

That's something I've noticed too.
For example, people who are fans of "24" but
who are against torture. When asked why they
would support a show that promotes torture, they
inevitably reply that "hey, it's just a TV show".
Same things for fans of "Dexter" who cheer on
Dexter the serial killer while at the same time
deploring murder, because "hey, it's just
a TV show". Or parents who deplore the amount
of marketing targeting children, yet still
let their kids watch this:

http://www.slate.com/id/2178849/

because "hey, it's entertaining..."

Good examples

Submitted by Peter G. Stromberg, Ph.D. on June 25, 2009 - 4:13am.

Yes, these are good examples of what I'm talking about. Of course, if a person watches a TV show that consistently shows images of people being tortured, it certainly doesn't follow that that person would torture someone. But it does follow that that person is in some way attracted to images of people being tortured, and we'd be better off acknowledging that. Thanks for the comment.