Wow...what a great topic. I think I could get up on either sides soapbox and and legitimately argue for both.
I personally love HT. Yes, it does let me enter the land of the dumb and allow me to be spoonfed my entertainment for a couple hours however, this is just how I like to be "entertained". The $$$ amount spent on a persons HT is completely irrelevant. Alot of people will want to argue the discretionary income thing. Dumb, Fat, Stupid, Lazy, Unaware, Selfish Americans are being created long before they ever set foot in a home theater. Somewhere I remember hearing that the average american spends 8 hours a day watching tv...Me?...I dont even have cable and only get NBC with a pair of rabbit ears.
Now do movies dumb down america?...Sure, there are alot of bad movies released nowadays, but there are also plenty of exceptional ones. Big $$$ hollywood flash is not always the best place to look and some of the indie film companies have put out some masterpieces. At least with a movie, I'm only out $2 to rent it and if it sucks, I can turn it off and do something else...then again, I'm not always sure if that something else is bettering my life in any way either. Would it be better to sit on the couch stuffing my face while critically listening to whatever my latest gear/software purchase? Hell, for a hundred bucks I could get a playstation and really ruin my life.
Ok lets face it, our society is FAR from perfect, but i think that the most important thing that everybody must realize, that although we will usually not agree with everybody elses ideas, something of value can be learned from EVERYONE if we allow it to be so. Too bad our society is one that has a hard time being truly selfless and rather it's actions are usually in the pursuit of immediate self gratification or self interest. Maybe someday we will have a society where kids play sports on a field instead of a television, where we all had better diets etc etc.
On that I will close...these are only my opinions. Maybe a good Movie Recommendation right now would be "Pay It Forward"
Oh...and do something nice for somebody today with no strings attached
I personally love HT. Yes, it does let me enter the land of the dumb and allow me to be spoonfed my entertainment for a couple hours however, this is just how I like to be "entertained". The $$$ amount spent on a persons HT is completely irrelevant. Alot of people will want to argue the discretionary income thing. Dumb, Fat, Stupid, Lazy, Unaware, Selfish Americans are being created long before they ever set foot in a home theater. Somewhere I remember hearing that the average american spends 8 hours a day watching tv...Me?...I dont even have cable and only get NBC with a pair of rabbit ears.
Now do movies dumb down america?...Sure, there are alot of bad movies released nowadays, but there are also plenty of exceptional ones. Big $$$ hollywood flash is not always the best place to look and some of the indie film companies have put out some masterpieces. At least with a movie, I'm only out $2 to rent it and if it sucks, I can turn it off and do something else...then again, I'm not always sure if that something else is bettering my life in any way either. Would it be better to sit on the couch stuffing my face while critically listening to whatever my latest gear/software purchase? Hell, for a hundred bucks I could get a playstation and really ruin my life.
Ok lets face it, our society is FAR from perfect, but i think that the most important thing that everybody must realize, that although we will usually not agree with everybody elses ideas, something of value can be learned from EVERYONE if we allow it to be so. Too bad our society is one that has a hard time being truly selfless and rather it's actions are usually in the pursuit of immediate self gratification or self interest. Maybe someday we will have a society where kids play sports on a field instead of a television, where we all had better diets etc etc.
On that I will close...these are only my opinions. Maybe a good Movie Recommendation right now would be "Pay It Forward"
Oh...and do something nice for somebody today with no strings attached