Television
I have not watched network shitcoms and dramas for approximately six years now. No Seinfeld, no Friends, no CSI, no "reality" tv. And I find that I am better for it. I may be at a loss from time to time when a coworker quotes a show. Usually the conversation goes like this:
"That's like that episode of Seinfeld. You know the one, right?"
"Sorry, I have only seen about two episodes of Seinfeld, and I don't remember either of them very well." Suddenly I get this very blank stare. It's sort of like a deer in the headlights look. Apparently I just said something so completely foreign it required a paradigm shift without a clutch.
"Umm... Well, I guess you would have had to have seen the show to get it." This is usually followed by an exit from the conversation that reminds me of watching paratroopers leaving a plane. The paratrooper jumps out the back of a huge plane and quickly recedes into the distance. Shortly after that, I'll see the same employee talking excitedly with someone who saw the episode.
Still, it is a small price to pay. I admit my hypocrisies (usually). I watch my football during the season. I love some British comedies. But I don't record an entire week's worth of television so that I can watch it on the weekend. I don't have to be home at a certain time in order to catch West Wing or Sopranos.
I would like to think of it as making friends instead of watching friends, but that doesn't always hold true. I am shunned for not having seen Survivor or Big Brother. I get this look as though I deign myself too good for television, like TV is suddenly the identifier of the working class and if you don't watch it, then you are a snob.
Small price. This blog is an attempt to pursue a passion instead of a paycheck. I write here hoping that it will force me to wright. Instead of talking about what others have written and acted out, I am trying to write it myself. I wonder, how many dreams have been killed by prime time? How many artisans gave it up for a shitcom? I am amazed at how many people I have talked to that will say "I wanted to be an artist/writer/painter/sculptor/musician/insert creative occupation here once," then allowed the mundane box to blunt passion. I am not insisting everyone killing their televisions, I just don't think that particular addiction is very healthy for the spirit, so keep it in moderation. Watch television as a way to unwind, or as background to something else, not at the expense of life. Prime time starts at 8:00 and goes until 11:00. That means that if the average viewer watches primetime Monday through Thursday, they are watching television for 12 hours every week. This is completely without sports, without weekend television, etc. When I think of that 12 hours gone every week, it frightens me. 12 hours is the equivalent of four 3 unit classes at a college. That is like working an extra six days every month.
And yet, try and tell a TV Addict about this, and they will tell you "I don't watch that much television, just a couple of shows." It is almost like a mantra to convince addicts that there are worse out there. Pursue the matter and an addict becomes very defensive. And yet, I still get shunned at the water cooler because I can't relate to last night's Leno. If Americans are spending all this time watching television, commuting to work, and working 40+ hours a week, no wonder they are getting fat. Let's break down the destruction of a society: Feed them something that will keep them inactive this way they will become out of shape. Feed them something that will distract them from the life at hand, that way they will not try to improve themselves. Feed them something that will take up 10% (based on primetime 4 nights a week, this goes up to almost 15% at six nights a week) of their time outside of work, that way they will not have time to think of doing something else. Suddenly there isn't any desire to be somebody. Instead we watch somebodies and act like they are intimate parts of our lives.
I'll quite with this: If television is so great, why don't we ever hear about actors that can't miss a show? I guess they are too busy being, not watching.
"That's like that episode of Seinfeld. You know the one, right?"
"Sorry, I have only seen about two episodes of Seinfeld, and I don't remember either of them very well." Suddenly I get this very blank stare. It's sort of like a deer in the headlights look. Apparently I just said something so completely foreign it required a paradigm shift without a clutch.
"Umm... Well, I guess you would have had to have seen the show to get it." This is usually followed by an exit from the conversation that reminds me of watching paratroopers leaving a plane. The paratrooper jumps out the back of a huge plane and quickly recedes into the distance. Shortly after that, I'll see the same employee talking excitedly with someone who saw the episode.
Still, it is a small price to pay. I admit my hypocrisies (usually). I watch my football during the season. I love some British comedies. But I don't record an entire week's worth of television so that I can watch it on the weekend. I don't have to be home at a certain time in order to catch West Wing or Sopranos.
I would like to think of it as making friends instead of watching friends, but that doesn't always hold true. I am shunned for not having seen Survivor or Big Brother. I get this look as though I deign myself too good for television, like TV is suddenly the identifier of the working class and if you don't watch it, then you are a snob.
Small price. This blog is an attempt to pursue a passion instead of a paycheck. I write here hoping that it will force me to wright. Instead of talking about what others have written and acted out, I am trying to write it myself. I wonder, how many dreams have been killed by prime time? How many artisans gave it up for a shitcom? I am amazed at how many people I have talked to that will say "I wanted to be an artist/writer/painter/sculptor/musician/insert creative occupation here once," then allowed the mundane box to blunt passion. I am not insisting everyone killing their televisions, I just don't think that particular addiction is very healthy for the spirit, so keep it in moderation. Watch television as a way to unwind, or as background to something else, not at the expense of life. Prime time starts at 8:00 and goes until 11:00. That means that if the average viewer watches primetime Monday through Thursday, they are watching television for 12 hours every week. This is completely without sports, without weekend television, etc. When I think of that 12 hours gone every week, it frightens me. 12 hours is the equivalent of four 3 unit classes at a college. That is like working an extra six days every month.
And yet, try and tell a TV Addict about this, and they will tell you "I don't watch that much television, just a couple of shows." It is almost like a mantra to convince addicts that there are worse out there. Pursue the matter and an addict becomes very defensive. And yet, I still get shunned at the water cooler because I can't relate to last night's Leno. If Americans are spending all this time watching television, commuting to work, and working 40+ hours a week, no wonder they are getting fat. Let's break down the destruction of a society: Feed them something that will keep them inactive this way they will become out of shape. Feed them something that will distract them from the life at hand, that way they will not try to improve themselves. Feed them something that will take up 10% (based on primetime 4 nights a week, this goes up to almost 15% at six nights a week) of their time outside of work, that way they will not have time to think of doing something else. Suddenly there isn't any desire to be somebody. Instead we watch somebodies and act like they are intimate parts of our lives.
I'll quite with this: If television is so great, why don't we ever hear about actors that can't miss a show? I guess they are too busy being, not watching.
posted by Unknown at 6:04 PM
2 Comments:
Funny, coming from a gentleman who loves watching Beavis & Butthead. :) I just caught an episode a few weeks ago on MTV2, and forgot how funny that show was.
That's true, I love that show. I have to admit, we all have our hypocrisies and that is one of mine. I watched that show prior to weaning myself of television and try to limit my TV time to my Treadmill time.
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