fill my brain with your light
March 27, 2007
At night I walk the dog throughout our neighborhood. I hear no songs being sung. I hear no instruments in practice. I see no families gathered at tables. Only head after head facing electronic screens. House after house plugged in for the night.
Frame after frame – like electron freight cars to the mind – they dump tons of cues mixed with bullshit.
qazse 
March 27, 2007 at 3:03 pm
I don’t watch TV anymore. Seriously. I used to be an addict but gradually weaned myself off about a year ago.
Of course now I’m addicted to the Internet so I can’t ride my moral high-horse too far.
March 27, 2007 at 3:25 pm
At least you are being interactive, selective, and creative while not being bombarded by sophmoric commercials. I admire your spirit and willingness to try new things such as radio.
I believe tv massages the masses into being predictable consumers. Mass education does the same: workers and consumers.
March 27, 2007 at 6:20 pm
oooh. what am image your words make! We have tivo now and blast past all the commercials. It is amazing how little content there actually is on the shows. I have one show I watch. JUST one!!! and it is so lame but it makes me laugh and that is the sole criteria I have these days. The rest of the programming goes to pbs cartoons. Gotta have cartoons!
March 28, 2007 at 9:28 am
I love Jay Leno’s and Jimmy Kimmel’s monologues and, they always give3 me a laugh. I will go for weeks without, but I know where they are when I need them.
That is an interesting observation you make about ti-vo exposing the sparse content in these shows.
Speaking of cartoons, I must admit South Park also makes me laugh.
What is the “lame” show you enjoy if I may ask?
March 28, 2007 at 7:29 pm
Haven’t watched TV in over ten years and haven’t missed it. Like Bice, I sit at a computer but only for a couple of hours a day. I remember the songs and the music lessons and the family around the table from my childhood – a pity we didn’t know what we had and replaced it with a talking box.
March 29, 2007 at 9:01 am
Hello Pauline, no TV for ten years is very impressive. Have you wrtitten about it?
March 29, 2007 at 10:40 am
We haven’t had TV for 2 1/2 years now…and I wonder how we ever had the time to watch it before.
I should clarify – we have a TV, but don’t plug it in unless we’re going to watch a DVD together. We decided to pull the plug shortly after the Janet Jackson Super Bowl fiasco. That was the final straw, but mostly we didn’t like the fact that we weren’t interacting with our kids when the TV was on. Either they would tune us out while watching their shows, or we would shush them while we were trying to watch ours…quality time at its finest.
March 29, 2007 at 11:20 am
“Either they would tune us out while watching their shows, or we would shush them while we were trying to watch ours…quality time at its finest.”
well put
Good for you! Have you ever posted on it? How was the adjustment for the girls?
March 30, 2007 at 4:23 am
Hi qazse,
I find there is a discernible physical/emotional effect of watching much more than a very few hours of TV a week… a feeling, often quite faint, of anxious unhappiness; a sense of time wasted in the pit of the stomach.
Regards
March 30, 2007 at 7:07 am
qazse,
nice point you have, driven right home.
convinced,
T5
March 30, 2007 at 2:02 pm
fencer – thanks for describing your experience of TV overindulgence. It also effects me the way you so well describe. I used to watch all the NFL playoffs and came away with professional grade ennui.
Are regular viewers walking around in a state of fatigue and unrecognized self loathing? Are they hypnotized to shop instead of taking a brisk walk?
Tom – I would respond to your comment but Charlie’s Angels just started…
March 30, 2007 at 8:46 pm
“Hello Pauline, no TV for ten years is very impressive. Have you wrtitten about it?”
Off and on for the past ten years. I
March 30, 2007 at 11:16 pm
any you can link us to from here? or point us to?
March 31, 2007 at 7:01 am
Is it the Cheryl Ladd trio or the Cameron Diaz, Lucy Liu, and Drew Barrymore kick ass triplet? I love the old version, I saw it when I was ten.
March 31, 2007 at 7:36 pm
qazse, I’m sorry, none on the internet, no. I ‘ll see if I can find one of my old newspaper columns and reprint it on my blog for you…
April 1, 2007 at 8:24 pm
T5 – how about the Farrah line up?
Pauline – I’d appreciate that. I think we need to hear from people like you who have made the decision to unplug.
April 1, 2007 at 10:37 pm
“how about the Farrah line up?”
If you must prefer a blonde, it has to be Cheryl Ladd. But me personally, I always liked Kate Jackson.
April 1, 2007 at 10:39 pm
oh, and on a side note, TV does feel like it’s rotting my brain whenever I watch more than an hour of it at a time.
April 2, 2007 at 7:47 pm
howard – this is qazse, i want you to break eye contact with the light and back slowly out of the room…
seriously, recent research is said to reveal a positive functional relationship between time of TV watching and the incidence of ADHD. Like, no kidding…
best
PS: I’m running down to Philly on Thurs. pm to pick up my brother and his props. He has a couple gigs near me.
April 2, 2007 at 7:58 pm
I didn’t watch much of the Angels but I seem to recall Farrah as being the only one who might be dancing to Lynard Skynard at the roadhouse you just pulled into.