Television is sucking my life away. Actually, it WAS sucking my life away until I realized it recently. My husband and I, after long days at the office and at home with the kids, would land in front of the TV around 8:00 and remain until 10:00 or later.
It wasn’t all mindless. We would watch the expedited nightly news(using our DVR) and then one of our "pre-approved" shows (24, West Wing, American Idol), but after that we got sucked in. A little flipping here. A little flipping there. Larry King. Animal Planet. You know how it goes.
2 hours a night, every night (excluding weekends) adds up to 40 hours a month. That’s a full work week each month that I was wasting in front of the tube. It could be worse: in the average US home, the TV is on 7 hours and 12 minutes a day.
So I’m going to reclaim my life. I’m turning it off. Now, I’m not turning it off completely. The nightly news is fine, and 24 will be on the list this fall. But the rest of it – the junk and the mindless stuff that makes me feel restless and worthless after I’ve watched it – I’m turning that off. I’m really enjoying the extra time to read. Not to mention going to bed early, which may be my most favorite thing in the world. Occasionally, I can talk my husband into turning it off with me, and we both head upstairs feeling very proud of ourselves. Who knows what good things may come of it?
Yours,
Lucy Pevensie
I completely agree, Lucy! Every summer, as the seasons end and the reruns begin, I vow to turn off the TV. How many times can I watch the same episode of Law and Order? A lot, apparently. It's become a mindless addiction I'm determined to break. At least until September;)
Philomena
Posted by: Philomena | July 10, 2006 at 10:15 AM
Phil,
I must say, I've spent the last hour and a half actually getting meaningful work done! The draw of the tube is getting weaker and weaker. Even my "news" fix isn't so urgent -- there's always The Washington Post in the a.m. Thanks for your encouragement.
Lucy
Posted by: lucy pevensie | July 10, 2006 at 06:42 PM
We dumped our $60 (and rising) cable bill for a $20 Netflix bill. My little girl Samantha was upset at first ("PaPa, Disney isn't on Channel 53 anymore!"), my wife misses her music videos and HGTV and I am missing all the "new stuff" at Sci-Fi and History Channels.
But, Netflix has a great library (60,000 and counting). It is incredible how much is being put out on DVD these days. Studios from Disney and the History Channel and all that stuff on public TV are cranking them out.
Samantha loves picking out and queueing up her selections, my wife has found a plethora of music DVDs (she is a professional singer) that are orders of magnitude better than MTV and VH1 and I can wait for the weekend to watch the latest "Conquerors in History" episodes.
And we don't need a DVR.
We get 3 DVDs, for as long as we want to keep them, one for me, one for my wife and one for Samantha. And having to make a conscious viewing choice (as opposed to sit 'n click) is real effective at filtering out the numbing cacola that litters cable.
Sorry for sounding like a commercial. I guess I haven't seen one in awhile ...
Posted by: Jay Cline | July 12, 2006 at 06:47 AM
Jay,
Thanks for the Netflix info (but don't tell my husband who works for a cable company that will go unnamed!) Anyway, I think you hit the nail on the head with "conscious viewing." My husband and I are trying to watch ONLY pre-approved shows -- ones that we decide in advance we want to watch. It is a great filtering system.
-Lu
Posted by: lucy pevensie | July 14, 2006 at 11:05 AM
It's great, unless you are Mrs. More, and your spouse "pre-approves" everything on ESPN, including four episodes of Sports Center!
TM
Posted by: Thomas More | July 14, 2006 at 11:16 AM
I just thought of a small correction to my original comment. It's somewhat harder for us single folks to turn off the TV. I know the married people with kids find it hard to imagine "silence" but it does exist and it's a little creepy! Eating a meal especially seems to require human voices in the background, don't ask me why. So, I often find that the TV is on in the background, even when I'm not paying much attention to it. I'm guessing other singletons live the same way.
Posted by: Philomena | July 18, 2006 at 11:02 AM