Now & Then

After reading a comparative table of film and television aesthetics I began to notice how unconcious society has become in postmodern times.
The first forms of moving pictures, film and television brought about thinking and watching. It was understood that the images being viewed were orchestrated events, that were recorded in the past and that the audience were absent spectators. As time goes by, technology advances and effects improve. It would be expected that our interest in these forms of media would be increased with all of these new advantages, however I have noticed that instead of a heightened interest we look at television and film with increasing demands.
We expect computer generated effects and spontaneous event driven plots to keep our attention. We are used to reacting to what we see instead of stopping to think about it. Authorship has been lost as we are able to see so many television shows and movies in such a short period of time that we often forget or never bother to pay attention to actors, actresses and directors involved in the creation of these works. More recently, the new craze of reality t.v has moved us away from the staged pre-recorded events and scenes we were used to and highlighted the "presentness" of the action. The audience has even made a shift from a mere viewer to a participant with vote in shows like 'American Idol' and 'So You Think You Can Dance'.
Is it possible that these rapid changes be sending us into a sensory overload and giving off a numbing effect?
I am not trying to take sides on the issue of whether or not these advancements in technology are good or bad just yet, I am just suggesting that we take the time to look back on where we came from and look ahead to where we are going. Sometimes technological advancements do not amount to personal/social improvement, we may soon find ourselves getting nostalgic for the simpler times...