Article written by Dylan Bell.
A few nights ago, I was watching TV with my mother and step-father when an ad came on for the TV series Body Hack. For those unaware, Body Hack is a show following Todd Sampson, who explores the world while discovering how different cultures and their traditions affect the human body. If you haven’t seen it, I urge you to do so immediately as it is truly fascinating. However, with the ad over and my interest peaked, both my mother and step-father had a different reaction. They both thought the ad – and by extension, the show – was stupid and that the host was only doing it to be on TV. Yet a few minutes later a different ad crossed our screens, advertising a show simply called Plane Crashes. To this, my family replied, “Oh, that looks cool. Better keep an eye out for that." Now, I know what you’re thinking, that plane crashes are interesting and it's fascinating to see how planes crash while learning about basic aerodynamics. Well no, in that instance you are thinking of an entirely different show. All this program does is show plane crashes. That’s it.
You may be wondering what that amusing anecdote was for. The simple answer is that, when I saw this reaction play out in front of me, two questions came to mind. Firstly, am I adopted? (Which I am in the process of testing.) Secondly – and possibly more important – why do we, as a viewing audience, have an aversion to intellectual TV? The answer, I am not entirely certain of.
I am not here to say that people who like to watch plane crashes are stupid (after all, that is the last thing I would call my family). However, it is undeniable that when you look at most programs on mainstream television, it is not easy to find shows that are intellectually stimulating. Occasionally you’ll find something that pretends it's intellectual by spewing sciencey sounding jargon, such as The Big Bang Theory or Rick and Morty. Both shows I enjoy watching but no matter how you look at it, they are not intellectual shows just because they sound smart.
So why? Why do we like dumb shows? And more importantly, shows that are by no means dumb, but not intellectual either. Once again, I am not certain I know the answer but I will endeavour to try and give you my best estimation.
My first thought on this phenomenon – one that I believe most likely to be true, or at least what I hope to be true – is that most of us in this world are busy. We lead busy lives with busy days, and we work hard. Often when we get home after our long days, we simply don’t want to think, we instead want to shut our brains down and leave it on auto-pilot for a few hours. In this state, some of us don’t have much patience for intellectual stimuli. I know that every now and then I need a break, and when this happens I turn on Family Guy or The Simpsons, because when I watch those shows I don’t need to think; I can just sit back and let my brain decompress.
While I hope this is the case for most people, it is unfortunately not the only possibility. Now, when I say this next part, I want everyone to keep in my mind that I don’t mean to offend, I truly don’t, but it is something that needs to be said. With some intellectual shows, it is clear that although they may be aimed at everyone – such as Body Hack – they obviously don’t reach everyone. This may be because some people don’t understand the subject matter, and that leads to them avoiding the show entirely. This isn’t bad by any means, but it is an undeniable possibility that people would avoid shows they believe would make them feel stupid. To anyone reading this who may ever feel that way, give it a try if you have even the slightest interest. That is what these shows are for, to educate and help people understand new ideas. There’s no shame in not understanding.
There is, however, a third possibility, and it is the most likely to be true. Coincidentally, it is also the one I hope least to be true. The third possibility, is simply that some people are just not interested in intellectual TV shows; they don’t want to learn more or educate themselves about new and different experiences, which I feel is the most depressing aspect of this phenomena. Unfortunately, there isn’t much we are able to do to counteract that.
As we come to the end of this article, I would like to remind everyone that intellectual TV is nothing to be afraid of. Sometimes learning and educating ourselves on aspects that we know little about is scary, but the information gained is often the most rewarding part of learning. Yes, sometimes we don’t want to learn, sometimes we just want to sit back and let our brain sit on auto pilot for a while. By all means do that, but leave time to learn, because if we stop educating ourselves, television will not be the only part of our lives that suffers for it.
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