2008 Woodie Awards
Our View: TV writers strike may not be all bad for Generation Y
Issue date: 11/16/07 Section: Opinion
Within the last two weeks, Congress voted to override President George W. Bush for the first time on a $23 billion water resources bill and a school shooting by an 18-year-old in Finland left nine people dead.
Important news items? You bet.
The chance the average college student noticed?
Somewhere between slim and none.
But college students far and wide more than likely did notice the fact that during the last few weeks, television has slowly been making its way toward rerun-filled programming blocks.
This is the direct result of the strike by the Writers Guild of America that officially began on Nov. 5 and affects more than 12,000 writers.
The WGA, a labor union that represents television and film writers, is taking aim at the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers over the profits from sales of DVDs and on-demand distribution formats, as well as the inclusion of animators and reality-show writers in the WGA.
One of the biggest knocks against Generation Y-ers is that we're lazy, unwilling to do anything that takes the least bit of effort and unmotivated to get anything done without a ton of urging.
But perhaps, in some odd way, something as seemingly inconsequential and unrelated as a strike by television writers can be just the chance young adults need to rediscover and reinvent themselves after being given, in effect, a New Year's resolution six weeks early.
In essence, what we're suggesting isn't that you should stop watching television or movies as some sort of symbolic action in support of the writers guild, but rather, because the reality-TV schlock that will be filling the airwaves in the weeks and months to come isn't worth your time. A show featuring projectile vomiting in some way doesn't seem too far off, either.
Sure, some primetime shows will continue to run for a few weeks or months, but others-including some of the most popular late-night talk shows-switched over to strictly reruns the moment the strike began. But if the widely accepted "absence makes the heart grow fonder" adage is true, avoiding watching television, coupled with a drawn-out "marathon" (as it has been predicted to be) of a strike may leave us downright in love with TV when new programming does actually come back.
Who knows? The crude quips of Gregory House may even seem funnier and the murders on CSI all the more twisted.
So use this strike, however long it may last, to catch up on other things. Call your parents. Venture on down to the Aebersold Recreation Center for the first time since September. Start that paper you've been putting off for a week or five.
It may be hard to believe and may test your patience, but taking a little break from the likes of Peter Griffin, Meredith Grey and Dwight Schrute may just open your eyes to the fact that a world does exist outside that little black box in your apartment.
Important news items? You bet.
The chance the average college student noticed?
Somewhere between slim and none.
But college students far and wide more than likely did notice the fact that during the last few weeks, television has slowly been making its way toward rerun-filled programming blocks.
This is the direct result of the strike by the Writers Guild of America that officially began on Nov. 5 and affects more than 12,000 writers.
The WGA, a labor union that represents television and film writers, is taking aim at the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers over the profits from sales of DVDs and on-demand distribution formats, as well as the inclusion of animators and reality-show writers in the WGA.
One of the biggest knocks against Generation Y-ers is that we're lazy, unwilling to do anything that takes the least bit of effort and unmotivated to get anything done without a ton of urging.
But perhaps, in some odd way, something as seemingly inconsequential and unrelated as a strike by television writers can be just the chance young adults need to rediscover and reinvent themselves after being given, in effect, a New Year's resolution six weeks early.
In essence, what we're suggesting isn't that you should stop watching television or movies as some sort of symbolic action in support of the writers guild, but rather, because the reality-TV schlock that will be filling the airwaves in the weeks and months to come isn't worth your time. A show featuring projectile vomiting in some way doesn't seem too far off, either.
Sure, some primetime shows will continue to run for a few weeks or months, but others-including some of the most popular late-night talk shows-switched over to strictly reruns the moment the strike began. But if the widely accepted "absence makes the heart grow fonder" adage is true, avoiding watching television, coupled with a drawn-out "marathon" (as it has been predicted to be) of a strike may leave us downright in love with TV when new programming does actually come back.
Who knows? The crude quips of Gregory House may even seem funnier and the murders on CSI all the more twisted.
So use this strike, however long it may last, to catch up on other things. Call your parents. Venture on down to the Aebersold Recreation Center for the first time since September. Start that paper you've been putting off for a week or five.
It may be hard to believe and may test your patience, but taking a little break from the likes of Peter Griffin, Meredith Grey and Dwight Schrute may just open your eyes to the fact that a world does exist outside that little black box in your apartment.
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