| Title: | Television Sucks |
|
| Date: | May 29th, 2001 | |
| Self Righteous: | 4 | |
| Opinionated: | 9 | |
| Simply true: | 5 |
I used to be a TV junky. One of those kids that came home from school
and would watch TV for 6 hours or so a day.
And my life flew by in a alpha-wave sedated flash.
It wasn't until my life became more interesting that I realized the amazing sacrifice I was making for the sake of The Cosby Show.
See, the real problem with television is that there is such good programming in there, nestled amongst all the tripe. It makes you laugh, it entertains you, sometimes it even makes you think.
So it's real easy to sit down to watch the Thursday lineup, or Friends reruns, or whatever the current hit may be (and then if you happen to watch the next two or three shows, well, that's a whole other issue).
But if you sit down and watch that Thursday lineup, you're watching a few hours of your life disappear. Or, if you're like most Americans, you're watching more than just a few hours every week. I used to watch something like 30 hours a week, most kids watch 20, and I know plenty of grownups who fit that profile.
20 hours a week is a part time job.
You are giving up that much of your life to watch Seinfeld. Is it worth it? Think about what you could do with 20 hours. You could dance. You could read or explore. Paint. Build something. Become a chef. Learn a language. Help someone.
I pretty much stopped watching television back in 1989 when I went to college, and finally just got rid of my TV set back in 1998 or so. I thought I would be miserable without it, but once it was out of my life, I never wanted to watch TV again. Now I only occasionally watch movies and my favorite shows on DVD collections, where I can only see white snow when the show is over, and life is much better. Try it.
Good places:
