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Does watching Big Brother lower your IQ?

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    #32
    dark crystal
    Registered Users Posts: 10,962 ✭✭✭✭dark crystal


    catallus wrote: »
    Well, there goes my evening :pac:


    Philistine!


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    #33
    BattleCorp
    Registered Users Posts: 11,758 ✭✭✭✭BattleCorp


    NachoBusiness wrote: »
    Eh, taking you at your word that you had no choice but to witness these few minutes "here and there" - why though are you still thinking about it?

    Wouldn't be that it interests you now would it?


    I wouldn't want to see a child run over by a car but I'd still be thinking about such a thing after I had seen it.

    I pretty much feel the same about big brother.


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    #34
    One eyed Jack
    Registered Users Posts: 23,693 ✭✭✭✭One eyed Jack


    dark crystal wrote: »
    I'd love to know what intellectually stimulating programmes the OP and others on here watch. I'm betting they don't spend their evenings watching art house films and documentaries about the philosophical teachings of Tibetan monks.


    I imagine, like most people, they like to watch something easy and entertaining for an hour or so. Perhaps whilst glugging on a beer with their hand down their pants whilst guffawing at something funny they spotted on catswholooklikehitler.com.


    If I'm wrong, please excuse the ignorant generalisation. I realise how smug and moronic generalisations like this can come across.


    There's a middle ground surely? While I agree that finding shows like BB entertaining isn't an indication of a person's intelligence one way or the other, I do have to wonder having watched CBB5, what kind of a person would find the vile behavior of other people entertaining?

    I understand to each their own and all, but what is it that's particularly entertaining about the show? It seemed to consist mostly of some utterly vapid human beings cloistered in a chicken coop of sorts, an example of the worst elements of humanity put under a microscope. I've caught a few snippets of the latest show and it just seems like more of the same.


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    #35
    mikom
    Closed Accounts Posts: 16,391 ✭✭✭✭mikom


    BattleCorp wrote: »

    Get a heap (technical term) of shouty, egotistical ar5eholes into a house and film them shouting and roaring at each other.

    oireachtas tv


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    #36
    Future Primitive
    Closed Accounts Posts: 25 ✭Future Primitive


    Candie wrote: »
    What about someone with limited options who seizes the opportunity to become a household name on the back of a reality show, and parlays that into a lucrative, if short lived, media career, thereby setting themselves up in a way they wouldn't have been able to otherwise?

    Moronic? Or pragmatic?

    Perhaps neither.

    I'm sure if they can get themselves to a stage whereby they're picked for Big Brother, they can get a job or study...something.

    The problem with these people is they don't want to work for the status they want and I've no respect for that.


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    #37
    galljga1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,938 ✭✭✭galljga1


    mailforkev wrote: »
    I landed on Sex and the City 2 while flicking through the channels last night, couldn't change channel quick enough to stop at least one brain cell escaping out my ears.

    Big Brother is almost high brow compared to that.

    The other one would have been lonely.


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    #38
    catallus
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,106 ✭✭✭catallus


    dark crystal wrote: »
    Philistine!

    :eek:

    What!? What I do?!:o


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    #39
    NachoBusiness
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,389 ✭✭✭NachoBusiness


    One eyed Jack wrote: »
    As has been witnessed with numerous 'balls of fire' on social media lately, academic intelligence doesn't always correlate with social intelligence.

    That's true but I would argue that Marc has bags of social intelligence.

    People are rather bizarrely assuming that because he is saying things which are causing the rest of the housemates to lose their minds that this must mean that he has no social intelligence but quite obviously if what was happening was not precisely the reaction Marc was looking for, then he would show surprise when they flip out.. but he never does, he's delighted. In the following clip for example (around the 28 minute point) the guy remains calm while one housemate loses their s*** with him and the a few minutes later sits there continuing to eat cereal from a bowl which another of them has just told him they wanted to smash into his face. He knows precisely what he is doing and that's what makes him such a great housemate. If he doesn't win he will be robbed. He's being passive aggressive, of course he is but that's how he is choosing to defeat his fellow housemates. If they can't go toe to toe with him without threatening him, that's their lookout and hopefully his paycheck.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_qT2cyoNz4


    Incidentally, I'm not sure why people keep pointing out what knobs some of the contestants are, as if this should someone wake them up to the fact they are watching something that they shouldn't be. Some of the best BB housemates in the show's history have been utter arseholes. The show is no different to any other show in that respect, be it Dallas and JR or Easteneders and Nick Cotten: the obnoxious upstarts are always the ones viewers ultimately tune in to see.


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    #40
    obriendj
    Registered Users Posts: 410 ✭✭obriendj


    A friend of mine argued, when BB first came out, that it was the dumbing down to the viewers it was so stupid how does anyone watch it. I replied saying that he didnt like it because he was smarter than the average person.

    His response was "well most people are smarter than the average person"

    We laughed at him.


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    #41
    dark crystal
    Registered Users Posts: 10,962 ✭✭✭✭dark crystal


    One eyed Jack wrote: »
    There's a middle ground surely? While I agree that finding shows like BB entertaining isn't an indication of a person's intelligence one way or the other, I do have to wonder having watched CBB5, what kind of a person would find the vile behavior of other people entertaining?

    I understand to each their own and all, but what is it that's particularly entertaining about the show? It seemed to consist mostly of some utterly vapid human beings cloistered in a chicken coop of sorts, an example of the worst elements of humanity put under a microscope. I've caught a few snippets of the latest show and it just seems like more of the same.


    People are fascinated by human behaviour, good and bad. You only have to look at this forum and read some of the things people discuss and argue about to appreciate how no subject is too dumb or vapid to be interesting.


    Why, there was a whole thread on here dedicated to the firing of some fat, pompous buffoon from a show about three white middle class men driving cars a lot. Who cares?


    Lots of people apparently.


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    #42
    OneOfThem
    Closed Accounts Posts: 667 ✭✭✭OneOfThem


    Ah it's just pantomime. It's not passing itself off as anything other, and I don't think anyone views it as anything else.


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    #43
    entropi
    Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 21,730 Mod ✭✭✭✭entropi


    I would presume it does lower your IQ. As someone who would rather put hot pokers in their eyes than willingly watch it, it seems to be the kind of show that has applicants who have "full time mad bastard" as their occupation on Facebook. It may be a big talking point amongst a lot of people, that doesn't mean it will have any meaningful relevance to normal life. It won't advance humanity in any way, that's almost a certainty.


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    #44
    Squeeonline
    Registered Users Posts: 2,554 ✭✭✭Squeeonline


    kfallon wrote: »
    It causes your IQ to go from a Natural Number to an Integer.....

    Natural numbers are a subset of integers.

    I can see you've been watching a lot of BB this year then.


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    #45
    Frito
    Registered Users Posts: 769 ✭✭✭Frito


    OneOfThem wrote: »
    Ah it's just pantomime. It's not passing itself off as anything other, and I don't think anyone views it as anything else.

    I watch it, albeit infrequently, to see which villain the nation is booing at.
    It's fairly harmless* but can grate so I dip in and out of it.

    *the exception being the proliferation of the term two-faced in all it's various applications. Am I wrong I thinking a BB series was responsible? How I detest the term.


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    #46
    NachoBusiness
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,389 ✭✭✭NachoBusiness


    BattleCorp wrote: »
    I wouldn't want to see a child run over by a car but I'd still be thinking about such a thing after I had seen it.

    I pretty much feel the same about big brother.

    I was speaking about joyous recollection.

    People seem to love talking about how much they hate Big Brother.

    'Who watches this nonsense' they scoff.. as they munch away on their popcorn.


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    #47
    One eyed Jack
    Registered Users Posts: 23,693 ✭✭✭✭One eyed Jack


    entropi wrote: »
    I would presume it does lower your IQ. As someone who would rather put hot pokers in their eyes than willingly watch it, it seems to be the kind of show that has applicants who have "full time mad bastard" as their occupation on Facebook. It may be a big talking point amongst a lot of people, that doesn't mean it will have any meaningful relevance to normal life. It won't advance humanity in any way, that's almost a certainty.


    While I'm actually pretty much in agreement with everything you just said, I don't agree that it doesn't advance humanity in any way. If anything, it makes those people who are already determined not to end up on the scrapheap of celebrity culture to work even harder to make sure they don't ever descend to that level of infamy.


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    #48
    entropi
    Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 21,730 Mod ✭✭✭✭entropi


    NachoBusiness wrote: »
    I was speaking about joyous recollection.

    People seem to love talking about how much they hate Big Brother.

    'Who watches this nonsense' they scoff.. as they munch on their popcorn.
    How did you know I have popcorn? :eek:


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    #49
    Robsweezie
    Registered Users Posts: 3,434 ✭✭✭Robsweezie


    big brother is part of a list of things that are fashionable to hate and have a snobbish attitude towards, alongside things like pop music and junk food. people pride themselves on saying how much they are above that kind of thing ''why are you watching/eating/listening to that ****e?'' so they can feel superior for having ''superior'' taste. the simple answer being we are all different, and not any less of a person either intellectually or morally for enjoying a certain programme, food, song, you name it. sure there in the ''weekly shop'' thread I was half expecting tons of posters to make a point of only having ''fresh, organic produce'' cooking from scratch every day and never touching a ready meal, as if it's beneath them.


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    #50
    eviltwin
    Registered Users Posts: 17,495 ✭✭✭✭eviltwin


    I've watched big brother most years since it started. I wonder how stupid that makes me :D


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    #51
    suicide_circus
    Registered Users Posts: 19,802 ✭✭✭✭suicide_circus


    Robsweezie wrote: »
    big brother is part of a list of things that are fashionable to hate and have a snobbish attitude towards, alongside things like pop music and junk food. people pride themselves on saying how much they are above that kind of thing ''why are you watching/eating/listening to that ****e?'' so they can feel superior for having ''superior'' taste. the simple answer being we are all different, and not any less of a person either intellectually or morally for enjoying a certain programme, food, song, you name it. sure there in the ''weekly shop'' thread I was half expecting tons of posters to make a point of only having ''fresh, organic produce'' cooking from scratch every day and never touching a ready meal, as if it's beneath them.
    While I agree we need to be vigilant when it comes to the type of masturbatory groupthink you're referring to, I do think big brother is awful. It's part of a class of insipid and vacuous "lifestyle entertainment", indeed it really kick started the famous for being famous culture about 15 years ago and for that it needs to die.


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    #52
    Secave
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 2 ✭Secave


    suicide_circus wrote: »
    While I agree we need to be vigilant when it comes to the type of masturbatory groupthink you're referring to, I do think big brother is awful. It's part of a class of insipid and vacuous "lifestyle entertainment", indeed it really kick started the famous for being famous culture about 15 years ago and for that it needs to die.

    Human interaction and social dynamics are not vacuous.


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    #53
    the_monkey
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,556 ✭✭✭the_monkey


    mailforkev wrote: »
    I landed on Sex and the City 2 while flicking through the channels last night, couldn't change channel quick enough to stop at least one brain cell escaping out my ears.

    Big Brother is almost high brow compared to that.




    enjoy!


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    #54
    Frank Bullitt
    Registered Users Posts: 11,301 ✭✭✭✭Frank Bullitt


    If watching it lowers your IQ, then actually being on it would make you a right thick çunt.


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    #55
    delw
    Registered Users Posts: 2,655 ✭✭✭delw


    eviltwin wrote: »
    I've watched big brother most years since it started. I wonder how stupid that makes me :D
    Stupid you are not just shows how bad your taste in tv is :p


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    #56
    Smiles35
    Registered Users Posts: 1,749 ✭✭✭Smiles35


    I wish it I could put on for the mam. It's doesn't be on the UPC. It may be just ordinary peeps but she doesn't do soaps.


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    #57
    PizzamanIRL
    Registered Users Posts: 5,148 ✭✭✭PizzamanIRL


    I used to watch it as a teen. Now I never watch "reality" shows anymore.

    Full of attention seeking fools who get put on a pedestal and get egotistical after living in a house and been displayed on TV.


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    #58
    eternal
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 8,867 ✭✭✭eternal


    War da u saw? *drools all over oneself too stupid to swallow spit*


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    #59
    Old Perry
    Registered Users Posts: 1,511 ✭✭✭Old Perry


    What i do is stick on an episode of QI afterwards to help cancel it out.


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    #60
    KingBrian2
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,363 ✭✭✭KingBrian2


    Their are many types of entertainment shows that lower your IQ. Two And A Half Men has the same effect. Once I put on Big Brother in the earlier days and it was 15min to 3hrs of some bloke lying out in the sun. What in the name of god is this crap?


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    #61
    deco nate
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,340 ✭✭✭deco nate


    Noblong wrote: »
    I wish it I could put on for the mam. It's doesn't be on the UPC. It may be just ordinary peeps but she doesn't do soaps.
    Tv3,just like the soaps... ;)


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