I HAVE a distinct memory as a child of watching a children’s programme called ‘Wanderly Wagon’ every Saturday on RTE at 5pm.
The stars of the show were O’Brien – Eugene Lambert of the famed Lambert puppet theatre – along with his sidekicks Rory, Godmother, Mr Crow, Judge among others.
My mother used always do a ‘Full Irish’ fry up at the same time and I was so taken up by the ‘Goggle Box’ that I barely gave time to eat my food.
I can still smell the aromas that wafted around the house and this time on Saturday afternoon became as much a ritual as going to Sunday Mass (which by the way was always on a Sunday!).
Back then we had only one station, RTE 1, the only colours on the TV were black and white and programmes on TV began at 5pm at weekends and that was considered early.
How things have changed down the years, but I suppose 20 years prior to that, television as such didn’t exist at all and people used to gather round the radio to ‘watch’ the All Ireland Final.
Nowadays we have 24 hour television, on demand, nevermind the constant access to movies and programmes through, first videos, then DVDs and now Apps such as Netflix, YouTube, RTE Player among others.
A good question to ask is ‘What effect has this continuous bombardment of television had on our lives ?
I use the term ‘Television’ (old-fashioned I know!) in its broadest sense to cover all types of multimedia including the latest ‘gaming’ craze.
In the earlier days, most programmes consisted of sport, light entertainment, news, and of course the much looked forward to detective programmes like Hawaii Five O and Columbo.
Perhaps our first introduction to any type of ‘erotic’ behaviour was ‘Dallas’ with the infamous JR and Sue Ellen. I may have got to see a little of it but if things got any way saucy I was packed off to bed with the rest of the programme left to my imagination.
The blanks were usually filled in at school the following day where I listened with delight and a certain amount of envy.
Of great concern is the amount of crime and pornography that is constantly on view in the up-until-recently sanctuary of our own homes.
To some I may sound like a prude but when this sort of access begins to take its effect on our society then we surely have to have a good look at it.
I read recently that the average 14 yr old had now witnessed up to 400,000 murders on television.
Our bodies react to those murders as if they were ‘real’ in exactly the same way that our bodies react to a rollercoaster and we think ‘we are going to die’.
Do people become conditioned, cold and immune to the effects of murder and violence as a direct result of watching all of this gratuitous violence?
I know that many of these programmes give great pleasure to many people, but somewhere along the line it has to be asked at ‘what cost’ to society?
Some of these programmes for instance ‘Love Hate’, ‘The Tudors’, ‘Game Of Thrones’ etc would put the good ould ‘Dallas’ in the ‘Wanderly Wagon’ or ‘Barney’ category.
Yes we have the choice to turn the television off just like we have any other choice in life.
It seems that the word ‘censorship’ now is a dirty word and regarded as old fashioned and the right to watch what we want on television is defended just like ‘freedom of speech’.
The Slogan – ‘If you stand for everything then you stand for nothing’ comes to mind.
Next week I am going to write about Technology and the Stress connection.
Very, very good!
Thank you Mary – Roger Harty