O.T.: Oreilly Takes on SL, Playstation

I watched, with amusement, Bill Oreilly's coverage of the Playstation III [WikiPedia] release (and ensuing riot) on Friday. I don't often agree with Bill's politics but he usually has compelling content, which is why I watch (until recently anyway, he and especially his stand-ins seem to be going for more softball topics lately). While I respect Bill's ideals, he really falls into "old man mode" when he tangles with technology. Check out some of these quotes:

"This machine, you can play DVD's and all of that on it, but it's primarily a game."

"So you can create whatever entertainment form you want, games, uh, television, DVDs, whatever you want."

Well Bill it's not a magic box, and it's not a game. It's a gaming system.

A little research on Wikipedia could have avoided these blunders. He also ought to know better than to call all technological devices "machines" -- the next thing I thought he'd say was that the Internet was a series of tubes.

Robin Raskin, a "New Media Consultant" told Bill about Second Life. Sadly, she didn't even mention that it was 3-D (or Internet only). To which he responded, of course:

"Second Life?"

"Its my theory that more and more Americans, millions of them, are creating their own alternative reality through these machines."therefore divorcing themselves from the real world. I think this is a very acute problem, it's going to damage millions of people, and it's getting worse."

"I never use those machines."

"We're creating a nation of zombies here. This is serious."

I'd say this is exaggerating it. Look, I hope I'm not offending anyone here -- it's kind of like making fun of the Amish online, I'm assuming that other out-of-touch old guys aren't reading my blog.