I saw this screed from a college student a couple of weeks ago: why you should cancel your cable. Or satellite. Or even broadcast TV.
And I agree.
I have an odd relationship with TV. I can go without for days. Then I get hooked into a hockey game or a movie, and suddenly I’m watching for 5-6 hours straight and going to bed at 1:30 in the morning.
To awake miserable, tired, and irritable, of course.
I suspect I have an addictive personality. Good thing I never tried cigarettes (if you have to do something to be cool, you can’t possibly be cool), got hooked on alcohol (just not crazy about the taste), or tested other drugs (I may not always like who I am, but I do want me to be me … and not something weird out of left field).
I start watching, sink a little lower on the sofa, and always find something else that is interesting enough. Poe – tay – toe.
It’s a particular danger right now. After threatening to cancel our satellite TV service (someone offered us a good deal on cable), we got bumped to about 200 channels, including all the ‘premium’ stuff. Civil engineering projects in Qatar, fauna and flora of Antarctica (OK, just fauna, whatever), soccer games in Peru: you name it, we got it.
Not to mention hundreds and hundreds of people in odd camera-infested homes, islands, and buildings doing seemingly pointless tasks while getting very passionate about them and with each other.
I have to say, though, that my productivity would hit new lows if I succumbed to the lure of the blue glow too often. And that if I never watched another moment of TV, I think my life would probably be better for it.
Maybe not more fun, but probably better.
Just like any other habit or pleasure, it comes down to one simple proverb: it’s a good servant but a bad master.
And if I can’t force it to be a good servant, it’d be better not to have it at all.
(Note: here’s a Google cache of the page, in case it’s not available anymore … I couldn’t connect when I was writing this post.)