In Chapter 8 of “Blown to Bits”, the authors cite a testimonial released by the Supreme Court in 1978 which states that, “the government had a special interest in protecting a defenseless public from objectionable radio and television content”. While that may have been a valid statement thirty-four years ago, can we as a society still argue that we are a “defenseless public”? Because of the astronomical advancements being made every day in the field of technology, our world has grown smaller and smaller. There is little that we cannot see or hear within a matter of seconds due to inventions like smart-phones and tablets. We have basically become masters of what we choose to be subjected to, and we choose to be subjected to a lot. When the government recently attempted to re-gain some control over internet regulations through SOPA and PIPA, both bills took enormous hits from widespread retaliation across the nation. Internet regulations make us angry, and you won’t like us when we’re angry.

As the commotion around internet laws increases, the regulations on television and radio censorship seem to decrease. Many TV programs use foul and obscene language (outside of George Carlin’s “Seven Dirty Words”) that would have never been aired in past decades. Channels like HBO and Showtime seem to have little to no regulation at all and take advantage of it every chance they get. Newer technologies like Sirius Satellite Radio allow users to choose from hundreds of stations, many of which are highly subjective and uncensored.

So with all this lax and unregulated media content, can we still be considered a defenseless society? Or has technology expanded so far that we have become more powerful than the regulations themselves? Time will only tell.