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Death and physical injury aren't the only ways someone can be harmed. Trust me - if you're the only kid in highscool without cable who isn't able to talk about

by ssebro 15y ago

Death and physical injury aren't the only ways someone can be harmed. Trust me - if you're the only kid in highscool without cable who isn't able to talk about that show from last night, you miss opportunities to bond. Those missed bonds are worth quite a lot, since they directly impact your future.

georgieporgie 15y ago
I'm sorry, but that's the most entitled and ridiculous position I've ever heard presented on the issue. As if copyright violation is somehow necessary to prevent social maladjustment. Where I grew up, we got two channels. Later, when we erected a huge antennae, we got two more. I didn't know what "Nickelodeon" was. So what did I do? I asked kids about the show they described, and I went to a friends house who had cable to watch it.
- chc 15y ago
  Was your situation much worse than everyone around you? Because studies have found that past a certain point, people's satisfaction with life tends to be highly relative. If you grew up without TV in a culture where most people didn't have TV, your experience is not comparable to someone who grows up without TV in a culture where a good deal of social interaction is based around TV.
  - georgieporgie 15y ago
    The answer to your question is contained within my previous statement.
    - chc 15y ago
      Your previous comment seems to imply the situation that my answer assumed — that TV wasn't a big part of the culture where you grew up. (I got this from the statement, "Where I grew up, we got two channels.") But I didn't want to flat-out say you didn't know what you were talking about just based on an inference, so I phrased it in the form of a question. If indeed TV wasn't a big deal where you grew up, replace "TV" with whatever activity dominated the social scene among kids your age. For example, it might just be hanging out and shooting the breeze, or it might be sports, etc. As a former homeschooled kid, I definitely believe shared experiences and culture are important to socializing.
cglace 15y ago
You could also argue that wasting all of your time watching TV shows directly impacts your future. Basically anything we do now directly impacts our future.
- ssebro 15y ago
  It depends on how and why you watch tv. If I didn't watch tv, I probably wouldn't have gotten into Stanford.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
batista 15y ago
Those are "first world problems" of the first order. The sense of entitlement and the notion of "harm" contained in the above comment is just unbelievable. How about real bloody issues, like being the only kid in highschool who's parents can't afford medical coverage? Or sending him to college?
- ssebro 15y ago
  "first world problems" do matter. As someone from a third world country, I have a keen sense of how much is conveyed and how much is learned from "silly" tv shows. You may not notice it yourself, but they define a large part of culture. Understanding that culture is extremely important to success in a variety of fields.
- yummyfajitas 15y ago
  "first world problems"...only kid in highschool who's parents can't afford medical coverage? Or sending him to college? Those are also first world problems.
  - jonhendry 15y ago
    Affording medical treatment certainly isn't just a first world problem.
    - yummyfajitas 15y ago
      Affording US style comprehensive fancy coverage is a first world problem. The various types of free "low quality" (by US standards) medicine available in the US are far better than what you get in much of the third world.
  - batista 15y ago
    Not having medical treatment and not having access to education are very real third world problems. Despite what the media show in their humanitarian segments, the third world is vast, and third world problems are not just of the kind: no access to water, famine and/or civil war.
ssebro 15y ago
I think a lot of the replies to my post are missing the point: "harm" isn't as obvious as you think it is, and pain can be inflicted by creating demand that must go unfulfilled.
- jonhendry 15y ago
  That's not pain. That's inconvenience. Get some perspective.
jonhendry 15y ago
Sitting at home watching a downloaded video isn't very social. You know what would be social? Going over to a friend's house to watch that show with them.

by ssebro 15y ago

georgieporgie 15y ago

I'm sorry, but that's the most entitled and ridiculous position I've ever heard presented on the issue. As if copyright violation is somehow necessary to prevent social maladjustment. Where I grew up, we got two channels. Later, when we erected a huge antennae, we got two more. I didn't know what "Nickelodeon" was. So what did I do? I asked kids about the show they described, and I went to a friends house who had cable to watch it.

chc 15y ago
Was your situation much worse than everyone around you? Because studies have found that past a certain point, people's satisfaction with life tends to be highly relative. If you grew up without TV in a culture where most people didn't have TV, your experience is not comparable to someone who grows up without TV in a culture where a good deal of social interaction is based around TV.
- georgieporgie 15y ago
  The answer to your question is contained within my previous statement.
  - chc 15y ago
    Your previous comment seems to imply the situation that my answer assumed — that TV wasn't a big part of the culture where you grew up. (I got this from the statement, "Where I grew up, we got two channels.") But I didn't want to flat-out say you didn't know what you were talking about just based on an inference, so I phrased it in the form of a question. If indeed TV wasn't a big deal where you grew up, replace "TV" with whatever activity dominated the social scene among kids your age. For example, it might just be hanging out and shooting the breeze, or it might be sports, etc. As a former homeschooled kid, I definitely believe shared experiences and culture are important to socializing.

cglace 15y ago

You could also argue that wasting all of your time watching TV shows directly impacts your future. Basically anything we do now directly impacts our future.

ssebro 15y ago
It depends on how and why you watch tv. If I didn't watch tv, I probably wouldn't have gotten into Stanford.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

batista 15y ago

Those are "first world problems" of the first order. The sense of entitlement and the notion of "harm" contained in the above comment is just unbelievable. How about real bloody issues, like being the only kid in highschool who's parents can't afford medical coverage? Or sending him to college?

ssebro 15y ago
"first world problems" do matter. As someone from a third world country, I have a keen sense of how much is conveyed and how much is learned from "silly" tv shows. You may not notice it yourself, but they define a large part of culture. Understanding that culture is extremely important to success in a variety of fields.
yummyfajitas 15y ago
"first world problems"...only kid in highschool who's parents can't afford medical coverage? Or sending him to college? Those are also first world problems.
- jonhendry 15y ago
  Affording medical treatment certainly isn't just a first world problem.
  - yummyfajitas 15y ago
    Affording US style comprehensive fancy coverage is a first world problem. The various types of free "low quality" (by US standards) medicine available in the US are far better than what you get in much of the third world.
- batista 15y ago
  Not having medical treatment and not having access to education are very real third world problems. Despite what the media show in their humanitarian segments, the third world is vast, and third world problems are not just of the kind: no access to water, famine and/or civil war.

ssebro 15y ago

I think a lot of the replies to my post are missing the point: "harm" isn't as obvious as you think it is, and pain can be inflicted by creating demand that must go unfulfilled.

jonhendry 15y ago
That's not pain. That's inconvenience. Get some perspective.

jonhendry 15y ago

Sitting at home watching a downloaded video isn't very social. You know what would be social? Going over to a friend's house to watch that show with them.