Discussion 1: Personal Effects of Mass Media

I remember my existence being completely saturated by television as a child. My mom and I would watch The Outer Limits, The Twilight Zone, Tales From The Crypt, Quantum Leap, The X-Files, Lifetime movies, Unsolved Mysteries, and other true crime-type mystery shows together when I was as young as 2. Together, she and the television instilled a deep fear of the world and distrust in humanity. Everybody wants to kidnap you, rape you, gruesomely murder you and send puzzle pieces to your family, or at least screw you over. I wasn’t allowed to go outside by myself, or wave or smile at people I didn’t already know. These shows left a deep impression that took most of my life to pick apart and replace with healthy and positive background thought processes.

On the flip side, I think these shows (in combination with choice cartoons which were more light-hearted, but perhaps equally as strange…Ren & Stimpy, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Rocky & Bullwinkle, etc.) also fostered in me an appreciation and total acceptance of the darkness in the world. Things happen: sometimes they’re delightfully bizarre, sometimes they’re twisted and awful and destroy lives. Yet, the world still turns.