The Lure of the Big Screen TV

Glenn and I recently turned part of our basement into a podcast studio and media center, and just bought a big screen tv for it, a href=”http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000GHL812?ie=UTF8tag=wwwviolentkicomlinkCode=as2camp=1789creative=9325creativeASIN=B000GHL812″actually this one,/aimg src=”http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wwwviolentkicoml=as2o=1a=B000GHL812″ width=”1″ height=”1″ border=”0″ alt=”” style=”border:none !important; margin:0px !important;” / which is 46 inches long. I do watch some TV, but usually dvd’s or shows like emSex and the City /emthat I record. But watching the news on the big screen tv with high definition has a different feel than watching it on my small one without high def. It is more personal and engaging, like I know the people who are coming up on my screen. The news seems more “real” and urgent than it does on a small tv. I wonder how this feel plays into our psyche. Given the more personal feel of newer and better TVs, I wonder if people are more swayed by the media images that they see, since it sounds and feels more real than in years past. I wonder how this plays itself out in politics. br /br /My patients, regardless of political party, often come in and parrot to me the news they hear on tv without question. You know, the Dems are great, the Republicans evil and such. When I watched the news just now with Nancy Pelosi and Wolf Blitzer, it seemed that they were right in my media room, talking to me personally. TV encourages people to think by linking images in their brains. Are these images stronger and more persuasive on a big screen with high def like the new ones out than they were on the smaller less clear ones? Now that tvs are getting cheaper and cheaper as well as bigger and clearer, will the emotions of viewers become even easier to manipulate? And if so, how will that play out in a medium that is captured by the liberal media? As tv’s get bigger, clearer, and cheaper, will we start to see blue everywhere?