Sunday, October 16, 2011
Unplugging the Television
I am an addict. That's right, I am addicted to watching television. How do I know that I'm addicted? Easy, because I often find myself watching programs, just for the sake of watching something. I also don't hesitate to re-watch, if I can't find something new. I watch between 16-20 hours of television each week. What do I watch? Mostly non-educational drivel and sports. Here's a quick list of some of the shows I watch: Castle, Fringe, NCIS, CSI, Bones, and Warehouse 13.
Three years ago, I tried to address my addiction and ditched my cable. Initially, my viewing decreased; however, I was introduced to online television, and before I even realized what was happening, I was back to watching 3-4 hours of television a night. At first I tried to rationalize that this wasn't a problem, in fact, I focused on the fact that I was no longer paying the cable company for my television. But the truth was that I had simply replaced the delivery system, that I was ignoring the problem. Currently, all of my viewing happens on my computer thanks to: Hulu, ESPN3, and Netflix.
For the past two weeks, I have been trying to limit my television viewing to a single hour per night. This has been met with limited success. In truth, for the most part I feel like I've failed. Looking back, I see that my biggest problem has been being consistent. I seem to do fine early in the week, but come Thursday, I find myself watching 3 or 4 shows in succession ( I call this "chain viewing").
Lately, I've been thinking about why I watch television. Sure, some of it is entertaining, but most of the time I'm just being lazy, or trying to avoid doing other work. So, this week I'm going to try a new strategy: before I can watch any television I need to complete my homework (any work for my classes the next day), and if I don't have any homework, then I can do a household chore to earn my television time.
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I agree with you, to a point. Yes, a lot of TV programming has little to no redeeming value, but there are also many shows that are educational. If you are having difficulties cutting down on watching TV, why not replace an hour here and there with some OPB shows? This way, even though you may not be watching any less, you will have at least got something out of it.
ReplyDelete-Janne
In the top video the narrator suggests a helpful tip for changing how we interact with the media around us, "Allow new information to challenge your thoughts and opinions." I agree with the narrator that the modern culture is lacking self-reflection and critical thinking about the information we take in. However, I believe that as well as starting with ourselves we need to go to the source and demand the truth about the information we receive. How is the consumer supposed to be able to make an informed, critical decision about a topic if the information they're receiving (through ANY media- not just television) is already filtered through some other opinion?
ReplyDeleteI would like to respond to what Mickey said. I agree with her. I do. I think it's very important to question and find out where all the puzzle peices came from. I just don't think it's that simple. How would you contact the source? I mean, I know you could probably write a couple letters, but even then... I don't think you'd get what you're looking for. Just like you said, it's "filtered through some other opinion". So, I don't think going to the source guarantees a truthful answer. They could feed you as many lies as they wanted to. And everybody has a different opinion, so if you ask anybody who was involved in making some piece of media, they're going to say something different than the next person you ask. And even further, there's your own opinion that sheds your own light of bias onto the matter. It's all just a bunch of information, no matter where it comes from, and everybody has a different perception of what it is. The truth, I think, has very fuzzy boundaries because of this. My question to you is: Why do you think it's so important to "demand the truth about the information we recieve"? I see the truth as a percieved thing, an opinion, just another "filter". What good do you think it would do? How differnet would it be? Even if we don't know what the person at the source thinks, in their own words, we can still challenge ourselves with thinking about the information, right? Why shouldn't we only concern ourselves with what we see as face value if that's the message that they communicated in the end-if that was their point? I'm just a little confused.
ReplyDeleteHere's where I have a hard time with the T.V argument: I think, as a whole, we've been looking at this the wrong way. We're looking at how much t.v we watch, what we're watching and whether or not it makes us smarter, but we've kind of side-stepped from what may be an even more important issue. T.V shows are sometimes made just for entertainment, but what about the one's that are not? The ones that are supposed to be telling us the truth? What about the News?
ReplyDeleteWe briefly touched this in class, but it seems to be the most important of all the discussions we've had. Who controls what we see and why?? Why do we almost blindly trust these people to tell us what's happening, when we barely trust our neighbors? Why do we let the fear they instill get to us and divide us as a people? Even more importantly why are they doing it? What are they gaining? I feel like the answers are right their under our nose, but in a strange way, it's like looking through red-stained glasses. Our fears are blocking the truths and just won't let us see them.
In response to PandaFreak:
ReplyDeleteI think you brought up something interesting. The news. I agree that we have been ignoring that whole area. And I want to say this: Why is it any different that any other show? I think it is entertainment. There's still advertising in the show itself, as well as commercials. They still feed you shit and tell you it's cherry pie. Some of the stories are absolutley ridiculous and have no relevance. The people that give you the information care way too much about their own opinions, arguing, and being assholes. That sounds like entertainment to me.
For example: A baby panda was born. Aw. Makes you think about going to the zoo (cough: advertising)and it keeps you happy 'cause you're thinking about a big fluffy baby mammal. And now guess what? Here's a story about a young gentleman who got his head blown off the other day. How sad. But, the police cought the bad guy. Oh, good. Now I have confidence in our law enforcement and that no matter what bad stuff happens, there's always gonna be somebody who pays the concequences. And the next story? These two famous people are dating! Like OMG! Let's all feel involved in other people's lives even though we don't know them! Yay! Oh, by the way, the lady is going to play the lead role in this new up and coming movie (Ha, more advertising)! And this guy's running for president, so you just sit back and listen while these two people argue because, you know, what they say is just SO interesting, and your time is definately worth wasting on them-even when they're being rude and talking over each other so you don't really know what either of them are trying to say.
I don't feel like I can properly finish this without hearing what other people have to say first. But, I would like to reitorate some of your questions, PandaFreak. What are they gaining? And why do we trust them so much?
I'm open to hearing how other people see the news and would really like to, very, very much. I'm sure my view is very different than most since I don't watch much of it, and overall I'm unedjucated when it comes to TV. So, somebody please, smack me with their personal "Book of Reason and Knowledge".
I would just like to point out how ironic I think the second video is. It's a music video that most likely aired on TV and he's rapping about how TV is bad. Without TV, though, his video wouldn't have been known.
ReplyDeleteOn the whole TV argument, I tend to agree with PandaFreak. Their point that it isn't TV as a whole, but that it's what we watch that is junk food TV. I agree with them that watching the news is a great way to stay informed, but I disagree with them at the same time. The news isn't necessarily a good way to stay informed about what is happening around the world, or even in your own backyard. Most of the TV stations are owned by one company, and some of the stuff that they consider news, isn't really news. For example, in the opening of the very first video, they have a bunch of news reporters saying headlines. Most of them aren't important, like what kind of dog will the Obama's have.
Most of the T.V. today, to me, appears to be unnecessary "garbage" trying to appeal to the "younger" audiences. At least the programs that seem to be most popular. Though I like to think I am better or too "good" to be watching most of the ridiculous programs provided, I can still find myself switching the T.V. to stupid, mindless, and "entertaining" programs. I can see that the T.V. is an obstacle in the way of doing homework or other important things for me, but I still don't try to correct my habit.
ReplyDeleteHaving the T.V. on, always, has just become a norm in my house.
Though not all of the programs on T.V. are bad or stupid, and some are informative, I still wouldn't use watching them, like the news, as an excuse for watching too much T.V. Like Andrea states," The news isn't necessarily a good way to stay informed about what is happening around the world..." and I agree. I agree because the media and news sources show us and tell us what we want to hear. It's based around our preferences and what appears as the most entertaining and better story. A lot of programs have these similarities. Maybe if our preferences changed so that watching more educational and beneficial programs became the preferred, then our T.V. would change and watching it might not be considered such a bad thing.
I’m going have to agree with Maggie and Austin, yes Television can be mindless and completely stupid, but why do we watch it? I honestly think that TV can take away your time that can be devoted to something productive. It’s even more depressing when people schedule their life around television shows: for example, Teen mom and American Idol. How do these shows help us in any way?
ReplyDeleteIt’s not bad to watch TV; we just gotta make sure we don’t get so wrapped up in it. Television can be a lot of money and unplugging the cable can be an E.I.R (electronic income reducer.)
Paige