Thoughts On Not Watching Television

I feel sometimes as if I am missing out on the world offers me for “free” just because I don’t watch television. It’s what I was raised on in my formative years and later watched it when I was in college and beyond.

Within the last year however, I made a vow not to watch television, not because of all the stupidity in programs offered, I realize there’s cable television that show more daring programs that regular television doesn’t offer as well the old standbys I used to watch when I was a kid.

Maybe it’s just the glut of crap on the boob tube, yeah; maybe that’s it. Maybe, suddenly after several years of attempting to be realistic, television has finally caught up to us and is trying to show us how stupid we humans can be.

I do catch glimpses of it though, when I am working out at the YMCA, at a friend’s apartment, at a restaurant or at a bar and yet it doesn’t offer much to me, just colored light.

Realistically though, Saturday morning cartoons sure aren’t the same, especially on the local channels. Disney took care of that and from what I understand, cable television cartoons aren’t any better, although they are more modernized in approach and reality. I guess I am used to “Bugs Bunny atmosphere” that a cartoon offered to me as a viewer, fantasy creations with a little too much violence and smart-ass wit that accompanied the cartoons with awesome orchestral music flailing in the background.

I have three television sets in my apartment, all gathering dust. I think I find television taking up too much time and its approach and style is there to amuse us after a hard day of work. News broadcasts are amusing, almost like the reality shows and sometimes a little too Hollywood for me.

Since when do newscasters behave like actors and actresses? I can’t tell the difference sometimes between the two mediums and then even when they are interviewing witnesses at ghastly murder scenes or car wrecks, the witness become part of entertainment as well, almost a little too hammy for the camera, putting a little too much emphasis on their own words, than what was really witnessed.

I guess it’s a form of reality television, much like the programs that are being produced by the networks; easy formula to follow, as all you need to do is find a bunch of willing strangers to forgo all of their human rights and basic needs for a few months or a year, just for a chance to be seen by possibly millions on the television screen.

Reality is craziness, really. And given the chance to act like an ass on television and being unpaid for it other than getting housing and a few other promotional goodies, but hey it looks good on your resume and you’ll be a hero to your friends and you’ll look real cool to everyone else, so why not? But no. there’s a little too much reality within our reality to begin with.

Trends inspire more trends. It’s easier to follow the crowd than to be on your own and lead yourself down your own path to your own destiny. Why stray from the pack when the pack knows what is good and a single mind wouldn’t know what is good and what isn’t good, anyway?

These are the same questions I ask myself night after night when I get off work and flip on the radio and find a radio station I like and listen to the nice voices telling me about the realities I don’t necessarily agree with, but can accept to some degree of happiness.

And that to me is one reason I prefer radio over television. It forces me to use my mind and imagine what a person looks like and imagine what they are doing while they are on the microphone speaking. And what they are wearing. And the stories they tell.

That’s far more challenging being complacent sitting in a chair or a couch and watching someone in a situational comedy acting on stupid impulses scripted out or a news program telling me about the latest scare tactic that the Bush administration is planning to implement.

By the way, did you know the U.S. government has plans to monitor what television programs you watch, simply because there are too many complaints of sex being a little too much for some people’s realities?

Perhaps those complaining are secretly enjoying it and are getting off on the visual fantasies that are being produced. One can never have too much of a good thing, you know, which is why the U. S. Congress believes now is the time to act as cops. Next thing you know, they’ll tell you what to listen to (music), another favorite target of theirs in years past.

There is hope however…which is all the more reason to junk your lazy mind, stop watching television and listen to the radio for a fresh approach; perhaps shortwave radio or even ham radio, as all three force you to critically think and make you listen to reality in a whole different light than television ever could do in a 30-second commercial spot for McDonald’s.

And that’s a good start for reality’s sake.