I don’t watch much television.
Am I proud of it ? No, I’m matter of fact.
It’s a decision that I made almost 20 years ago. I looked at my time allocation at that time as I realized that I needed time to study. I had just started working, and was still studying for the CIMA exams then, and I needed to carve out some time for studies. I had time to split between work, study, sports and television (which I watched quite a bit back then) and I realized that 24 hours a day were not enough to fit everything in.
Work I had to do because, well, one needs to eat.
Study I had to do because, well, it was the most obvious way I could see to progress in my career.
Sports I did because I liked it a lot and also because, well, you need to be fit if you want to stay alert. And being alert helps when it comes to studying. My chess background helped convince me of this as I used to play 8-10 hour stretches when competing in tournaments.
Television I decided I had to dispense with. And I have no cause to regret having made that decision way back then.
I guess in a way I had to look at it dispassionately.
Don’t get me wrong : there’s nothing I like better than to come back from work and just plant myself in front of the television for hours on end. You’re entertained while resting and you don’t have to strain your brain cells too much. There aren’t that many television programmes that strain your brain cells much anyway.
But back to why I looked at it dispassionately.
I guess when I weighted the pros and cons of watching television, I realized that the cons were a lot more than the pros.
We’re talking about time to exercise, time to socialize, time to read a book and smell the flowers, time to enjoy a hot cup of coffee with friends, time to play in the swimming pool with kids and all the other opportunities in life that pass us by when we’re seated in front of the tube.
And on the pro side of the equation, we are entertained by watching actors doing exactly those same things on television.
We’re also talking about how watching television conditions our tendencies. It’s called passive entertainment for a reason. You’re passive as you sit in front of the tube and absorb it’s contents and you become passive as you get conditioned to sitting in front of the tube for hours on end. I don’t think you find too many businessmen watching television for hours a day unless you count watching the business news as passive entertainment. Heck, can you even consider watching the business news as entertainment ?
We’re also talking about how it affects your schedule. I once went out briefly with a girl who watched a lot of television. She cut short one date because it was time to rush back to catch a series. She cut short phone conversations because it was time to watch a show. Most of her plans revolved around catching this show or that series, and when that show ended, she was still sitting in front of the tube because …………. well, she’s already there, isn’t she ? So might as well watch.
I cut short the relationship.
I just couldn’t envision a life where so much revolved around television. Meals, conversations, play time, trips………. frankly, I felt that the price was too much to pay no matter how attractive the girl may have been. And I don’t even want to go into how an environment like that affects children.
I see kids and youths nowadays who are sat in front of the television or playing video games for hours and all I see is wasted youth. I’m not talking about how it affects their learning and studying habits, or how it affects their social skills, or how it blunts their creativity. All I see is them sitting in front of a screen for hours on end – wasted time, wasted youth. Adults sit in front of a screen for hours too, but they call it working. And Astro advertising itself as the education channel for kids just makes me sick. Of course, this is my own personal opinion…… just in case they feel that they should sue me.
And I do make a caveat for retired folk who have to fill up their excess hours somehow. There are many things that they can do, but there are also many hours for them to fill so I don’t quibble in their case. In the absence of something better to do, I guess television is the alternative.
But for younger folk whose hours are more precious because they have more to do, and are physically more capable of doing it……….. television is a bane. Watching romance movies doesn’t mean that one is being swept off one’s feet, watching the education channel doesn’t mean that one is smart and no, watching football or tennis doesn’t mean that one has exercised. One has merely watched somebody else getting some exercise. It’s an illusion that too many youth buy into. It’s why America has so many obese people even as their television shows are filled with the likes of Paris Hilton and Patrick “McDreamy” Dempsey.
I admit that I have picked up tips and tricks and whatnot watching sports on Astro. But I still had to go out to play myself to be able to use those tips and tricks. And that’s why we have regiments of arm chair critics who say that Rooney should have done this or that and it’s easy because they don’t realize how difficult it is technically to do something at speed in a fast paced environment.
It’s easy to watch the education channel and say that I have learned something even though what is learned is frequently of little practical use. It’s easy to see cute couples holding hands or cuddling because you never have to see them putting out the trash or taking a dump. Or having plastic surgery so that they can be said cute couple.
It’s easy to do all that and live in a world where explosions don’t kill the action hero, and the underdog always wins, and rain doesn’t make the romantic star wet unless they want to show how miserable and desperate and heart broken he is.
Almost 20 years ago, I chose to leave that world. I have no regrets.
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