These days I have been exposed to considerable number of hours of Tamil family oriented TV Serials due to some unforeseen concatenation of circumstances. Let me clarify that I have not watched many different serials but I have watched many episodes of a few serials.
My observations:
- There is a good amount of voice over that expresses people's thoughts. Meaning there is a good amount of focus on letting the audience know what the characters thought apart from what they explicitly said. The expression of these thoughts make it more obvious to the audience as to what a character really felt or thought.
- There is a good amount of focus on what people are saying, wearing, who is watching. The incidents are fairly routine with most of the settings being indoors in a family environment. The target is towards the what, who, when that appeals to the S (as in MBTI) personality than to the N. You have probably come across people whose talk refers only to what happened to them, their family and friends, expressing shock, surprise, fear and other emotions (interspersed with context sensitive sayings "Mother knows best" and expressions "Inshallah", "By God's grace" or similar stuff in other languages such as "Shiva Shiva" - These phrases have no value other than in a social context).
This combination of S (Sensory information) and F (Feelings) is easily digested and eagerly expected and indulged in by more than 80% of the population. It's a rare kind of person (and I don't mean great, just another kind but rare) that shrieks in horror when exposed to SF.
By SF, I refer both to a certain type of people and to an environment that these people find appealing. An environment that focuses primarily on what, who, when and how and on a why that's primarily Emotional rather than Logical.
Now that leads to the next question: what is the difference between the Emotional Why (EY) and the Rational Why (RY). This is a question that people ask me often. I don't think my answer has been satisfactory to them. Let me try to provide it here.
Let's say an incident X happened. We could explore the reason behind it in 2 ways.
- "Actually she said this, so he felt bad. On the other hand they didn't really mean to do it. But Anita had no other choice so... That led to X." I would call this the Emotional reasoning. This kind of reasoning typically traces the events, what one felt, what one did until the final event X. There is no formula created which can be used to predict what would cause another instance of incident X.
- The kind of reasoning that results in such a reusable formula is what I term logical reasoning or RY.
For example, let's assume 50 years back there was a car accident and the driver died.
One kind of reasoning would focus on the fact that Henry, the driver, had an altercation with his business partner earlier in the day about some discrepancy in their finances. Hence Henry was lost in thought as he was driving and didn't see that traffic signal had turned red and hence...
Another kind of reasoning would have led to the invention of airbags. RY leads to a formula that can be reused in another situation. EY does not lead to such reuse.
The first kind of reasoning, the emotional one, focused on one aspect. The 2nd, the logical one, focused on another aspect.
The rational NT takes pride in the fact that he uses the K(nowledge) of an event and analyzes it with the Rational Why to create something like an airbag. The feminine mind (SF) uses the same K(nowledge) to determine the Emotional Why.
Can you imagine a Tamil TV serial that focuses on the 2nd kind? Who would be interested in such a thing? It takes a peculiar mind, a Non-SF, that focuses on the Rational Why to determine a "universal" answer that can be applied to other similar situations.
Would an EY result in understanding the concept of gravity after seeing an apple drop from a tree? Can we imagine what the SF mind would contemplate after seeing an apple drop?
Since the non-SF mind focuses primarily on the Rational Why (RY) and kinda disregards the EY, such a mind is lost in the world of social interactions. Even in such interactions, the RY is focused on finding a formula for analyzing the indulgence of people in the Emotion Whys. Resulting in the non-SF being socially retarded.
An interesting thing in this context is that the SF can't process information that lacks proper nouns. Meaning if the what, when, where, how are mentioned without a NAME, the SF is distinctly at a disadvantage in processing such information. SF have the same issue when dealing with algebra where x, y don't have known values but still are used to denote some concepts.
An interesting thing in this context is that the SF can't process information that lacks proper nouns. Meaning if the what, when, where, how are mentioned without a NAME, the SF is distinctly at a disadvantage in processing such information. SF have the same issue when dealing with algebra where x, y don't have known values but still are used to denote some concepts.
We often have heard about women loving family oriented TV serials and men not much so. The reason is that 90% of the women are either S or F. Probably two thirds of all men are either S or F. The difference is that most women are S and F. While men are more likely to be S than F.
Since men, generally, aren't too keen
The people that are neither S nor F would not appreciate such serials. People that are only S or only F fall somewhere in-between in their appreciation of such serials. Family oriented TV serials primarily dole out F stuff that doesn't attract the average man. Physical sports, on the other hand, are primarily about S. We know which gender these sports telecasts attract.
Since men, generally, aren't too keen
The people that are neither S nor F would not appreciate such serials. People that are only S or only F fall somewhere in-between in their appreciation of such serials. Family oriented TV serials primarily dole out F stuff that doesn't attract the average man. Physical sports, on the other hand, are primarily about S. We know which gender these sports telecasts attract.
Another characteristic that I have seen in Tamil TV serials, apart from those mentioned earlier, is the increase in decibel levels of background score in an emotional scene. Such background music indicates the emotional intensity of the scene. The onset of such a score prepares the viewer to an emotional intensity even in the absence of something emotional hitherto (akin to the experiment with Pavlov's Dogs). An SF is characterized by a What-Is and the attendant EY.
Having watched a few videos on Ted Talks, I often wonder why they are presented in an audio video format instead of as just plan text. Occasionally, the talks involve the audience (there usually are hundreds in the auditorium and the possibility of having a good interaction with the audience is limited) or show slides but for the most part, a text transcript would suffice.
Why do they use an AV medium? I wonder whether the actual content (non-SF) is worth no more than 3 to 4 minutes out of the total 10 to 15 minutes of talk by the speaker. The rest of the content (7 to 12 minutes) appeals to the SF.
The ability to indulge in the S and in the F makes for survival in the social world of human beings. The absence of it ostracizes the non-SF. It takes a non-SF to appreciate the consternation at what makes an SF thrilled. A similar issue happens when the typical SF interacts with a typical non-SF. The non-SF is perhaps seen as a nerd or as autistic.
The non-SF, with his RY, rushes to create a universal formula. The SF sees such a universal formula as being judgemental and confining. She prefers to see each incident as unique having its own set of EYs that cannot and should not be generalized.
The smart SF's look to the non-SF as a useful tool to whom important offbeat jobs can be outsourced and as one who provides useful perspectives on difficult situations which help the SF's find workarounds. The non-SF is seen, at best, as an exceptional bot. At worst, as emotionally juvenile.
The non-SF is great at abstract thoughts. But it falls very short of meeting the basic routine expectations required of an SF world.
It's one thing to understand others. Its beautiful to understand how others understand us. It all started with watching Tamil TV serials!
Additional reading
https://vbala99.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-weak-shall-inherit-earth.html
Having watched a few videos on Ted Talks, I often wonder why they are presented in an audio video format instead of as just plan text. Occasionally, the talks involve the audience (there usually are hundreds in the auditorium and the possibility of having a good interaction with the audience is limited) or show slides but for the most part, a text transcript would suffice.
Why do they use an AV medium? I wonder whether the actual content (non-SF) is worth no more than 3 to 4 minutes out of the total 10 to 15 minutes of talk by the speaker. The rest of the content (7 to 12 minutes) appeals to the SF.
The ability to indulge in the S and in the F makes for survival in the social world of human beings. The absence of it ostracizes the non-SF. It takes a non-SF to appreciate the consternation at what makes an SF thrilled. A similar issue happens when the typical SF interacts with a typical non-SF. The non-SF is perhaps seen as a nerd or as autistic.
The non-SF, with his RY, rushes to create a universal formula. The SF sees such a universal formula as being judgemental and confining. She prefers to see each incident as unique having its own set of EYs that cannot and should not be generalized.
The smart SF's look to the non-SF as a useful tool to whom important offbeat jobs can be outsourced and as one who provides useful perspectives on difficult situations which help the SF's find workarounds. The non-SF is seen, at best, as an exceptional bot. At worst, as emotionally juvenile.
The non-SF is great at abstract thoughts. But it falls very short of meeting the basic routine expectations required of an SF world.
It's one thing to understand others. Its beautiful to understand how others understand us. It all started with watching Tamil TV serials!
Additional reading
https://vbala99.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-weak-shall-inherit-earth.html
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