The television screen, so unlike the movie screen, sharply reduced human beings, revealed them as small, trivial, flat, in two banal dimensions, drained of color. Wasn't there something reassuring about it! -- that human beings were in fact merely images of a kind registered in one another's eyes and brains, phenomena composed of microscopic flickering dots like atoms. They were atoms -- nothing more. A quick switch of the dial and they disappeared and who could lament the loss?

Summary

This quote suggests that television, unlike the cinema, devalues human existence by portraying people as insignificant and mundane figures. The television screen reduces humans to two-dimensional, colorless images, making them seem unimportant. Yet, this portrayal can bring comfort, as it implies that humans are merely images, comprised of tiny flickering dots like atoms. Consequently, the quote highlights how easily people can be forgotten, just like the flip of a channel. Ultimately, it questions the significance and necessity of human beings in the grand scope of things.

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