2040

I woke up in my sleeping pod and gave the voice command for the door to open. I stretched and floated over to my dressing chamber. I picked out my favorite silver wrap-around outfit from the holographic screen and waited while the machine put it on. I floated by my window and look out at the moonscape and towards the dying planet that we once inhabited. A pang of fear and pain hit my chest as I think about the destructive power humans can posses. I glided over to the food dispenser area and gave the voice command for cereal. The dry space food packet came out of the opening. I grabbed the packet with my chubby fingers and consumed it quickly. I strapped myself into my transport chair and gave the voice command to go to my class room. I zoomed down the metallic hall and turned right into pulled up to desk and holographic screen. I said "play" and watched my virtual teacher give the lesson for the day. I listened to history of our time on Earth and wondered what it was like to live there. After the lesson was done, I completed some work questions. When I finished, I decided to watch the daily announcements and news. Chairman Boswell was explaining how they are building another greenhouse on the west side of the compound. I got bored so I decided to sleep some more. I reclined in my chair and took a nap. When I woke up, I was hungry so I went to the food dispenser on my chair again. I ate a powered chicken packet and gave the voice command to my chair to call my mom. Her voice came out my chair and she said that she was in the entertainment room. I told my chair to go to the entertainment room and we zoomed through the metallic building. My mom was wearing the same thing she always does; a black wrap around with a silver lining. We talked briefly about each others day. I asked my chair for a snack and a dried fruits popped out. After a while of staring at the screen flashing images of the board of directors of this compound, I decided I was tired so I went back to my sleeping pod and slept for the rest of the day.

Blog 7: Pictures in Our Heads

Ever since its creation, television has had a profound effect on society. Television is a influential source of entertainment and a window to the happenings around the world. The works of George Gerbner, Shanto Iyengar and Donald Kinder asked the question, "What exactly is television showing us and how does it change the way we think about the world around us?"

Gerbner conducted a study that observed the portrayal of the world on television programs and linked people's views of society with the amount of television that they watched. The results showed that the heavier viewers had a skewed perception of what the world was like while the lighted viewers remained more realistic. Gerbner concluded that the more one watches television the more it influences her perceptions of society.

Iyengar and Kindler conducted a study in which they had multiple control groups that watched programs that were specifically edited to emphasize a particular issue in the country. After a week of testing, the results showed that each group was more concerned with the issue that was emphasized in the programs they viewed. Ivengar and Kindler's experiments supported Gerbner in that television greatly influences your opinions but added that it is not just how much you watch but what you're watching that influences your personal views.

Television is a great source of entertainment and knowledge but it can sometimes be misleading. The material that is shown is not always reality. In order to avoid being brainwashed by these images we must resist these pictures on the screen to become "pictures in our heads."