12/15/2008
Recently, a study revealed that Americans watch more TV than ever before. The average American watches 142 hours of television per month. That is about 4.75 hours a day!
I will not be under the idea that “TV is bad” and “no TV is good”. There are great shows that enhance our lives, inspire action, and touch hearts. Television is an amazing medium and we are better off with its capability.
But I also acknowledge that the less I am glued to the TV, the happier and better off I am. Indeed, the December 5th issue of the magazine THE WEEK cited a study:
[the] General Social Survey, an ongoing project of the National Science Foundation, found that people that describe themselves as happy watched an average of 19 hours of television a week, while their unhappy counterparts watched 25 hours a week. The survey also found that people who watch less TV engaged in more community, church, and other outside activities, and they also read more. “TV may provide viewers with short- run pleasure, but at the expense of long-term malaise,” study author John Robinson tells Live Science.
TV isn’t “bad”, but the ways we’re devoting our lives to it is. The TV, like anything else, can be used to excess—especially since it has such a strong, versatile hold on people.
For too many, TV serves as an everyday replacement for emotional investment and time to be creative—to truly be ourselves. I am referring to the regular, misplaced enjoyment we get from watching TV and the opposing frustration we feel if the TV should happen to malfunction, if our favorite program doesn’t happen to be on, or if we are in disagreement with the content or message being aired.
I can recall allegiance to particular shows. I would schedule my day or night around them. I would subtly focus throughout the day on the hour my shows comprised, counting the hours left before they started. I would get excited as the start time approached and disappointed when it ended. This TV time was a sanctuary of reliability and pleasure. This heightening caused television to be “bigger than life” as life itself was comparatively dull. I could have made my life more interesting, but chose to use TV as my needed interest and so it served to prop up a discontented existence. Fittingly, this over investment would make me vulnerable to anger toward the program if I disagreed with the host. I clung to the program’s content, relying on it to dictate my mood.
“Losing yourself” in television is not without merit, but we often do so at the cost of compromising our own purpose in life. We displace our emotions into these programs—these replacements to real life; too many rely on this substitute.
As well, we’ve all been guilty of using television to stay up hours longer than we intended. This is another trap. How many of us have ever watched something that we truly were not all that interested in? TV has a way of allowing us to remain in this zombie-like trance during these wee hours. Participating in this avoidance, we let ourselves become victims of another of TV’s temptations. This time, rather than the heightening of a specific block of planned television watching, we let TV’s mind-numbing quality distract us from our real life. It’s deceptively nice to avoid full consciousness—which for many can feel slightly empty, lonely, and depressing. However, the harder it is to turn the TV off, the more it needs to be turned off. The Week’s continued blurb, when addressing diagnosable conditions noted:
It’s not clear whether TV makes people sadder or that depressed people tend to plop themselves in front of the TV. But Robinson speculates that depressed people turn to television as an escape, “TV is not judgmental not difficult, so people with few social skills or resources for other activities can engage in it,” he says. “Even the unhappiest people can click a remote and be passively entertained.”
How many times has this happened? You’re watching a movie on TV that you actually own, but would NEVER have gotten up and put the movie in yourself. Since it’s on, though, you watch it. We watch TV 4.75 hours a day, because humans take what’s offered to them. If it’s Shark Week, we’ll watch it. If it’s Survivor, we’ll watch it. Because of this tendency, we need to monitor ourselves, asking if what we are watching is what we really want to watch, or if you have something better to be doing. Most of time, we have something better to be doing.
My friend, Vanessa, revealed to me that she has started keeping track of the duties around the house she completes while her husband glues himself to a football game. Lately, she had performed a closet reorganization. Noticing that and the other tasks she has completed makes obvious all that would have been undone had she chose to watch television and has brought to light the sacrifice TV watching can be. She recognizes that 3 hours can add a lot of productive activity to one’s life.
Another popular application is to have the TV on in the background. As long as you’re devoting some attention to the tube (and you are if it’s on), just that much are you choosing to miss out on the experience of what you are actually doing. What TV adds to your ambiance is equally being subtracted from your main focus. Why do we leave it on in this case? Like the others, it’s too quiet and lonely to be faced with mere reality.
Anything, though, that reveals discontentment with reality is actually a gift for showing us that default. Let us use the opportunity to work on the problem made evident by the television. Ask yourself, “Why is a television-less existence an empty one?”, and you’ll get your answer as to why you watch so much of it.
TV as it should be: What is life to you? What is each hour, each memory? Do ANY precious memories come from staying up late channel surfing or getting engrossed in the sitcom or drama of your choice? Does TV watching EVER fall in line with how you really want to live your life? I’m sure there are those that do and are honestly content with their pattern of life and, thus, content with television’s hand in keeping them where they are. But I know that there are those of you not content with that, but continue to watch. TV can be such a trap that we need to work to avoid.
I used to think of every semi-interesting TV program as a not-to-be-missed opportunity. With this thinking, so is every book to read, human to meet, or food to try. It has to be on your terms.
Rather than a mere reduction, we need to redefine the TV’s role and let our reduced viewing become the product of this redefinition. TV is simply a resource for passive entertainment and education. When I am ready to go back to living my life, I shut the TV off like I’ve finished a meal—I’m full. Get to know yourself so you can tell when you are done with TV as you can if you are done eating, reading, sleeping, etc.
Those who can break TV’s hold find themselves with several hours a week to try new things—things they have always wanted to put their mind to. TV can be very productive, relaxing, and entertaining. But 4.75 hours a day isn’t relaxing, it’s wasteful for those that are so much more capable, but choose to limit the richness of their existence. How meaningless do people consider their lives to be to not regret all those hours lost? TV’s not a replacement for life, just a tool to enhance it.
