Tue 24 Apr 2007
Yes, it is that time of year again… Big Brother time! I like to pretend that I’m one of those people who is absolutely disgusted by a bunch of twenty-somethings romping around on national television acting like gits, but secretly I must admit to just a small amount of curiosity.
I often find myself searching for that part of my own psyche that would want to be part of such a show, and sadly (or is that gladly) I can’t seem to find it. How is it that these people actually want to live on a Television Set for so many weeks? What is missing in their daily lives that wants to make them partake in such a project?
Some might refer to Big Brother as entertainment, whilst I like to think of it as a symptom of the world we live in these days where our own personal obsessions with technology and the media revolution that allows us all to take part in it.
Have you ever heard of the Milgram Experiment? Quite an amazing experiment that measures the willingness of a subject to obey an authority figure against their own sense of personal conscience. The experiment seriously reminds me of one of the very first episodes of The Simpsons where the family attends a therapy session and end up getting strapped into a machine that allows them to electrocute each other… very funny stuff.
“This is Big Brother!” Well for some, maybe.