Airport Dystopia
Nearly every dystopic novel I have ever read usually has an all-powerful state that insists on televisions everywhere in all public and private spaces to spew government propaganda and rebellion-soothing-entertainment at the masses. (Example: Richard Bachman / Stephen King's Running Man, which is a much better novel than a movie.)
I am reminded of this every time I go to an airport. Why is it every airport feels the need to have CNN blaring from televisions spaced out every 20 feet or so. You can't escape it or turn it off. Do they really think I am so much of a moron that I can't entertain myself or even sit quietly without video Valium blaring at me every second. Can't we maybe have some little quiet TV-free rooms, like the smoking rooms spaced around the airport?
I am an active computer gamer and much of the talk in the community is the uproar EA has caused by putting ads in Battlefield 2042. Much of the discussion is not fact-based, but just panicky rumor-mongering, but one can see how much people don't want advertising pushed at them. Which is funny to me, because ubiquitous TV in airports seems a much more annoying push than a few ads in a game.
Matt:
Speaking of smoking rooms...can we have THOSE back, please? Especially now that a round-trip through the security perimeter routinely takes 2 hours and can spike up to 4?
October 30, 2006, 9:36 pmmarkm:
I think the issue with ads in EA is that people see a very big difference between ads in free entertainment (TV and radio) and ads in something they've paid for.
October 31, 2006, 9:03 amJohn:
The only thing worse than the average airport is Las Vegas where in addition to the pablum from CNN, you have the slot machines. These aren't silent and their loony tunes run over and over, driving sane people right off the deep end.
November 1, 2006, 12:28 pm