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Comment by branchless | Hacker News Reader

I agree. When I watch TV now and see adverts they seem so transparent in their desire to manipulate me. And the people on the shows look ridiculous. Why are americans orange on TV? It's spread to the UK now - orange-itus.

Best thing I ever did was to get rid of TV. Having one is like inviting the worst people in the world round your house.

I think the internet might be next. I think I might offline things I want to learn. My phone can do for maps when I need it but for the rest it's a pain. I really should learn my TV lessons WRT the internet.

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Short answer to why people are orange: simplistic color correction schemes, overzealously applied during video editing. Priceonomics did a wonderful exposé of this trend recently.

http://priceonomics.com/why-every-movie-looks-sort-of-orange...

Interesting, but I was thinking more of USA orange news-casters.

Whilst I'm on my high horse, because I don't watch tv when I see CNN in our building lobby I always find it so weird how the reporters, especially the women, employ body language to emphasize their point. There is no volume on just the image and they are nodding so vociferously and making hand gestures. They look deranged.

They obviously all get taught this as a way to get their point across but look quite mad.

I'd say we should get an analog mailing list together for like-minded people, but I think we've all become too accustomed to 23ms response times to allow 1-3 days between messages.

We have a TV but we don't get broadcast television, only on-demand. You don't have to invite the worst people in - for example we've sat down and watched the RI Christmas lectures (http://www.rigb.org/christmas-lectures) together.

We also use the TV for gaming/DVDs.

Initially we went cold turkey on the TV but then we used one for DVDs only and eventually slipped back to watching shows (primarily via BBC iPlayer). Partly because we hadn't accounted for the cost of the hobbies we dreamt of filling our time with; instead we continue to live vicariously through the on-screen experiences of others.

Sure - I also have a monitor so in a similar boat. And yes that is what TV is for - a mechanism to stoke demand and supply information.

There are things you can cut out because much of the internet is self-perpetuated and relies on an odd combination of societal inclusion and apathy to continue to grow. Do you need to peruse others cat pictures endlessly everyday...no. TV is put there to placate people and much of the social internet is equally useful. But here I am posting this to HN but I can say that as a person without a facebook account so it is a matter of priority. I think Neal is right on!

I think the internet has a wonderful side - I've learned a tremendous amount on it. It also has a side similar to TV. You have to choose but sometimes the edges blur (as in my post TBH).

Agreed. For the last two years or so I've found myself weighting text-heavy websites like HN, or Reddit much more positively.

What I find disconcerting is that this shorthand seems entirely about ornamentation--the worry is that maybe some future TimeCube-like site will be subtle enough that it won't trigger my "is the author a kook" filter.

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