Turning Off TV

TerryS · Joined: 16 Oct 2006 Posts: 95 Location: California

An article by Kira Craft about being surrounded by TV:

For a person who doesn't own a television, I sure watch
a lot of TV. I gave up my set years ago in exchange for
a more peaceful home and the ability to actually get things
done. But TVs are everywhere these days and it seems
impossible to escape the ubiquity of their presence in my
daily life.

Today, for instance, I watched hours of TV without even trying.
This morning I went to the gym, where I had the choice of staring
straight ahead into my own personal treadmill TV screen, or up
at a firing squad of ten consecutive televisions all tuned to
competing channels. Now what I really like to do when I exercise
is look out the window, or pick a point on the wall to rest my
eyes as I focus on breathing and being present. This is an
impossible dream at my gym because of the visual cacophony
bared before me. Instead, I watched shrill men and women argue
about politics like a lovers spat, twentyish reality show
contestants ponder the tribulations of love, people on a game
show answer questions like "What is the price of Rice-a-Roni?"
and a photogenic court judge wittily reprimand a string of
sulking defendants on their erstwhile behavior. This is a
very different experience than thinking about breathing and
being present.

Thanks to the Transit Entertainment Network, the cab ride home
from the gym confirmed that my initial morning TV injection
would sustain itself as an IV drip throughout the day. Though
the ride could have been a brief respite of watching the world
through my window, what I really did was find out about the
proper way to apply under-eye concealer and the latest
"so great" vacation spot that all the celebrities adore
--potentially helpful information, I suppose, but definitely
unsolicited.

Next came the dentist's office waiting room, with chairs lined
up towards the TV (tuned to CNN) like church pews facing an altar.
After that the lunch bar in a fancy department store flaunted
mini TV's (golf was on) at every other seat--- and finally,
my ultimate television bonanza occurred on the evening flight
from New York to Los Angeles. I was on an airplane for two
hundred people and we each had our own personal screen set
into the back of the chair in front of us. There I was, with
two hundred tiny TVs merrily winking their programs non-stop
for six hours straight. I could turn mine off--of course--but
not my neighbors. I was surrounded.

It's not that I dislike The Set all that much. There's so much
to love inside the big plastic frame. All of life's struggles
and love's battles are right there on 24-hour display. It isn't
that I don't like to watch the beautiful people in beautiful
places doing beautiful things... I do. I gave up my TV because
I asked myself one day, 'If I spend all my time watching other
people's dreams, when do I get to live my own?' And I've been
trying to answer that question ever since.