This is the second part in a series, so if you have not already done so, you might want to read Part I before continuing.
2215
“Of course you all read the article I sent you on how the average twenty-first century American spent his time, right?”
“Right,” the class echoed.
“Excellent. So who wants to tell me how many hours per day the average American spent watching television?” Several hands went up and Mr. Lively called on a student towards the back.
“The average was five hours a day,” she said.
“Five hours a day. And most people were working how many hours a day, Glenn?”
Glenn, the boy with the freckled face who sat in the third row, scrolled frantically through the article on his tablet.
“You should have read it already, Glenn.”
“Sorry, Mr. Lively.”
“I don’t need you to be sorry, I need you to do the work I assign. Who can tell Glenn how many hours the average American spent working at the beginning of the twenty-first century?” More hands went up and Mr. Lively called on the dark-skinned boy in the front row.
“Eight.”
“Eight hours a day. So their five hours of television was more than half the time they spent working. And five hours of television a day was the average. Remember, there were people who spent even more time than that watching television. Now, keeping that in mind, what do you think Chandra White was trying to say about television in her novel?”
Mr. Lively let the silence sink in as he regarded his students. Slowly, hands started going up. Mr. Lively called on a girl with blond pigtails.
“That it’s powerful.”
“Why is it powerful?”
“Because that’s what people are doing with the vast majority of their free time. Even taking into account the number of options Americans had for what to watch, if you put something on the air, chances were good that millions of people were going to see it.”
“So?”
The girl opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out.
Mr. Lively decided to help her. “What happens when you watch a show?”
“Your brainwaves slow down.”
“You get sick from sitting all the time.” The ancient practice of raising hands to be called on had momentarily disintegrated and Mr. Lively let it pass, waiting for the right answer.
“You compare.”
Mr. Lively’s face lit up and he raised a finger. The class went silent as he pointed to the pale, dark-haired boy in the middle of the room. “Compare what?”
“Everything. How the people on the show look compared to how you look. How they dress. Where they live. How they live. What they eat. What they spend their money on.” When he finished, Mr. Lively was still pointing at him and the boy wasn’t sure what to do.
Mr. Lively said, “Excellent. We compare. We have always compared. Since the dawn of time we have compared ourselves to other members of our family, other members of our tribe, members of nearby tribes. Then we got television. Then we could compare ourselves to people hundreds, even thousands of miles away. People who have absolutely no connection to us now have the ability to influence our lives, which goes back to what Samantha was saying. Television is powerful. Why is it powerful, Samantha?”
“Because it spreads a message.”
“It spreads a message. Precisely. Humans suddenly had the ability to broadcast an idea faster and farther than ever before.”
“What about the Internet? That was around by the time White was writing, right? Wasn’t that the fastest way to spread a message?”
“Yes, but we’ll get to that later,” Mr. Lively told the tow-headed boy sitting in the second row. “White’s book certainly mentions the Internet, but she focuses primarily on television. Why do you think that is?”
The boy was silent.
“It’s a one-way form of communication,” said Samantha.
Mr. Lively pointed at her. “Exactly. There’s no comment section. There’s no reply button. It’s just you taking in whatever the screen shows you.”
“But people still talked on the Internet about what they saw on TV,” said the tow-headed boy.
“True, but it’s not quite the same, is it? You’re not talking directly to the people who made the show, you’re talking to the world at large about the show. People could voice their opinions and vote on their favorite shows, but ultimately, it was up to networks and the producers to decide what to show and what not to show.
“But that’s just the show, isn’t it? What else were people watching when they watched television?” Mr. Lively clasped his hands together and tapped his forefingers against his lips as he waited for the answer.
“Advertisements.”
“Advertisements,” Mr. Lively said, pointing to the dark-haired girl by the door. “Did people get a say in what advertisements they watched?”
All the students shook their heads.
“Did people get a say in whether they viewed advertisements at all?”
“Sometimes,” said the dark-haired boy in the middle.
“Sometimes, yes, but what about the majority of Americans? The ones who couldn’t afford the premium cable channels or a digital video recorder? Did they have a choice?”
“They could not watch television,” the boy responded.
“That’s true, but did the average American make that choice?”
The students all shook their heads as the bell rang. They jumped to collect their things and head out the door.
“All right, I want you all to think about the power of television in early twenty-first century America and don’t forget to read the next three chapters of Shadow for tomorrow.”
To be continued …