A recent Amazon ad suggests staying home as an alternative to socializing with friends at Happy Hour.
The ad shows a woman at home, sitting on her couch alone, with a glass of wine in one hand and a remote in the other. Click the image below for a larger view.
While some alone time can be good, a trend toward anti-social behavior and drinking alone can be a problem:
“A person who drinks alone is putting themselves at risk of developing a substance abuse problem and of increasing the problems they are facing. They are isolating themselves from others, magnifying problems with friends and family and denying that they have a problem.” (Source: AlcoholRehab.com)
Drinking aside, seeking out television rather than people in the real world can have undesirable side effects:
- “Every hour of TV watching shortens life by 22 minutes,” The Telegraph, 15 August 2011
- “Study: Watching too much TV could lead to early death,” USA Today, 25 June 2014
- “Watching too much TV could shorten your life,” CBS News, 25 June 2014
While Amazon is promoting sedentary behavior in this ad, they are also selling the medical equipment you’ll need after contracting the diseases and health complications that come from that lifestyle.
Everything you love, now on your TV
Google advertises their Chromecast device with the statement, “Everything you love, now on your TV.”
As with Amazon’s ad, this is a similar romanticization of how technology and content providers can fill our need for love.
In science fiction films, a popular image is the portrayal of people being ‘glued to the tube’ and somehow being controlled, manipulated, or sedated through media. These ads reflect a similar future.
Network
This segment from the film Network depicts how people self medicate with telelvision.
The Antidote
Get up from the couch, be active, make nutritious beverages choices, and socialize.