Kill your television

When I was growing up, it was an uphill battle for my parents to keep us watching only an hour of television. Instead, we usually ended up sneaking in 2-3 hours of daily TV-watching.

In Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman talks about how everyday Americans, during the Lincoln-Douglas debates, were able to sit through 13 hours of extremely subtle and intricate (i.e. extremely boring) debate...and yet it was riveting to them. Postman goes on to argue that television has changed us by shortening our attention span. I completely agree.

What is the purpose of television? It is entertainment through vicarious living. When you watch TV the actors' lives become your life--which is ironic when you realize that, by watching someone else's "life," you've relegated your own to sitting on the couch and becoming inanimate. I think that's why all your senses shut down: you become so engrossed that television encompasses all of your attention. I had a roommate whose girlfriend, Brooke, literally became a zombie when the television was on. You could talk directly to her and she wouldn't hear you. It was both sad and scary.

I know that any medium of entertainment is a form of escapism. The whole point of entertainment has always been to give excitement and variety our everyday lives. So my point isn't to bash on entertainment in general or television in particular. In fact, I think that entertainment can also serve a valuable purpose. Storytelling has survived for centuries because stories of all types (plays, movies, etc.) help the audience learn from the mistakes of others. By living vicariously for a few minutes or hours, we can gain valuable experience.

The problem arises when we prefer the vicarious life to our own reality--then it becomes a drug. Entertainment is a narcotic that needs to be taken in small doses.