Is the medium really the massage?

As McLuhan said...? If it is, apparently these days we need bigger mediums and deeper tissue massages. My husband was at one of those giant warehouse marts where EVERYTHING is bigger (Note: when you're buying diapers, this is not such a terrible thing). Anyway, some guy was wheeling a 62" TV to the check out counter. And someone commented on how big it was and the guy countered back that this was not his first and that he was 'collecting' them. Who in the hell collects 62" TVs?? And who in the world needs more than one?? It's so Farenhiet 451 with those talking TV walls. Creepy!!

I say this, because it feels like it's been a year since I saw a TV show all the way through, and these shows are being viewed on a 15" TV. We have not let our 14 month old watch any TV up to this point, and we're hoping to keep it going for as long as possible, and as a result my TV diet has been severly curbed. I'm a bit surprised at how at times I'm apathetic to the medium, and at others, where I would just about give my eye tooth (you don't need this one for much, right? Since we've become civilized carnivores on the whole...) to spend an entire day enraptured by the fuzzy blue glow of my 15" set.

Oh well, life is short, and I want to give my baby as many IQ points as I can, and somehow, while a lovely distraction, I don't think TV helps in that respect. A scary aspect of this all, is that he knows who Elmo, Ernie and Cookie Monster are, although he's never once watched Sesame Street.