Among the worst habits that I’ve had in this lifetime has been an acute addiction to television. I was addicted to the video nanny since I was a kid and kept up the habit over the years.
It’s only been in the last decade that the addiction has waned. I first started noticing the disturbing trend on regular network television of substituting “reality” programming for actual writing. Shows like “Survivor”, “amazing race”, and “Big brother” pulled in viewers and allowed programmers to skimp on the writing.
Regular shows got bad too. The writing became uninspired, sometimes it was almost directly lifted from shows I had seen from the last quarter century. Formulaic approaches played ad nauseam.
A few gems still exist of course. “Big Bang theory” is a notable example and it has garnered fans for coming up with fresh new material but by and large it’s a wasteland. Reality shows that are scripted, fake TV drama, more violence, more sex, more appeal to the lowest common denominator.
My set lays idle every night gathering dust. I don’t even try to look for shows anymore. I’m filling my time nowadays with books, the internet, and friends. I find it much more satisfying. I was afraid that by quitting TV I would miss something important. The opposite is true. By spending so much time on TV I have missed so much of my life. I should have made the change sooner.
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