For the love and hate of television - Jack Phillips

The fact that something like the Emmy's takes a higher importance than the Nobel Prize ceremony is something about our society that really bothers me, but it is understandable. For the common person, breakthroughs in molecular chemistry or nuclear physics have no immediate effects, but the common person spends hours in front of the television each and every week. This is not to say that these scientific breakthroughs are of lesser importance, because I believe that they are far more important than fictional television shows, but for the average person, this television has a much more direct impact. There is also the fact of economics. These actors that appear on these award shows are generating hundreds of millions of dollars in this industry of entertainment, whereas the scientists, philanthropists, and mathematicians who win the Nobel Prizes have a much less significant economic impact on the world as a whole, with some notable exceptions. This is why I think that the glitz and glamour of the Emmy's award show in comparison to the Nobel Prizes is a very bad thing, but it is appropriate for the way our society functions. TV does however have some positive benefits to it. There are several channels on television that can educate our nation's youth like the Science, Discovery, and National Geographic channels. Unfortunately these channels are becoming fewer and fewer as those like the History channel are abandoning factual accuracy and education for entertainment. But until television ceases to offer any medium for education, there will be people who advocate for it's educational value, even when it is apparent that a vast majority of television is simply mindless entertainment.