I was that mom by the way, yep, the TV Nazi mom. And on top of that, the "You should go outside and play and maybe cause a little bit of trouble because you're boys" kinda mom. Kids are kids and they need to establish their own social order. Most these young boys today act of feminine ways. WAIT, you know what, I'm not going down that road because it's going to take all day to touch on that dynamic. Anyway, I monitored what both my boys watched; call me gay, I don't care. Then again I didn't bombard them with the likes of Walt Disney either, frickin' pedophile. I kept it at an even keel with Power Rangers, Dexter's Laboratory, and even the ever so quaintly twisted favorite Ren & Stimpy. As they got older, I would have to listen to them tell me, "Yea, I got in trouble at my dad's house because I didn't want to watch American (Idiot) Idol with them as a family, when all I wanted to do was to finish my Harry Potter book". Heaven forbid you distract a child from developing his literacy skills. Meh, whatever. In that case, it all came out in the wash and they understood who promoted development.
My oldest now could care less that we haven't had a TV for over 5 years now. He's a nerd, way ahead of his time and feels the device is antiquated anyway. Since the nerd apple didn't fall far from the nerd tree, I don't miss it one bit either. Television was always overwhelming to me even in my younger years. I felt very sensitive not to the messages but how images flashed so quickly without any sort of logical pattern. The last time I actually watched the news, actually listened and engaged myself in the story was 1993. I still remember standing in my living room in Monrovia, watching little Calvin on the floor playing and something was on about another rape/death...I don't know, and I recall thinking "That's it, no more!" Since then I recall moments at work, with my co-workers watching the OJ trail and them saying "Darcy, can you believe it?" My reply, "I don't give a shit". The Menendez boys, same, "I don't give a shit". I believe that might have been the pioneer days of celebrity and voyeurism, you know, the launching of the United States of Kardashian. Derp!
I could go on and on and on as normal, but I'm guessing at this point if you are a TV junky, you gave up reading this a wh....il......e.......
1. Watching TV Wastes Time
Not watching TV has given me a lot more free time to do things I love. I recall in my late teens, I’d mark out shows I want to watch on my schedule. Then I’d arrange my activities around them. While I was watching the shows, other activities had to be put on hold. I didn’t count, but I was probably spending at least 3 hours/day in front of the telly, if not more. That’s quite a bit of time spent in front of the black box and doing nothing else. In retrospect, that was a big waste of my evenings.
5.1 hrs wasted away, every day
Nielsen research showed the average American watched an average of 5.1 hours per day, or 153 hours of TV a month (Q1 of 2009). That’s 1/3 of the time we are awake! This figure is increasing too, quarter by quarter. 5.1 hrs/day is nearly 2,000 hours a year, or 78 days – 2.5 full months. Even though these figures reflect the American population, the figures for other regions probably don’t deviate much.
With all this time spent watching TV, it’s a wonder how we even have time to do anything else. Just imagine if we spend a fraction of this time working on our goals – we’d already be making so much headway by now.
False sense of productivity
The one thing I noticed about TV is how it gives you an illusion that you’re missing out from not watching. At least, it gave me that impression. The TV trailers would go “This Thursday is Blockbuster Thursday – Be sure to catch Movie #1, Movie #2, Movie #3, back to back! You CANNOT miss this!” Or “This holiday season, all the best movies are coming home to you! You won’t want to miss this for anything!“. For a period of time, I’d take time out to catch those shows, then feel accomplished after I’d watched them.
But these shows never stop airing. They just keep going on and on, and once you are done for the week, new trailers will run. It’s like a vacuum that sucks you in and keeps you there. I also realize that I don’t ever accomplish anything from watching TV.
2. TV Slows Down Your Brain Activity
There’s a reason why they coin the term “couch potato”. Excessive TV watching turns you into a potato in time. Research has shown that when you are watching TV, your higher brain regions shut down, and activities shift to the lower brain regions [Source: TV: Opiate of the Masses]. Your lower brain is set in a “fight or flight” response mode. In the long run, your higher brain regions experience atrophy due to lack of usage. There have been studies that TV viewing among children leads to lower attention and poorer brain development.
At the end of the day, you don’t need a medical study to tell you whether TV slows down your brain or not. Since TV is a 1-way medium, you don’t engage and interact. You only sit and watch. When I was watching TV in the past, I would feel sluggish and "doped". Compare this with other activities say talking to a friend, using the computer, reading a book, writing articles, I am a whole lot more active. Imagine spending so much time in front of TV every day – it’s a matter of time before you turn into a zombie. It’s not a coincidence that heavy TV watchers are also stagnant and passive people.
Over-Commercialization
Most product placements today seem force-fitted. It’s as if the network producers prioritize commercial needs over viewer needs. I believe it’s possible to integrate both together, but producers have not found the sweet spot yet.
In the context of Singapore TV, there have been numerous local variety shows commissioned by sponsors (for example, a beer company, another of a beauty company), and these shows seem to be more advertising outlets for the companies than genuinely informative.
5. TV is Linked With Lower Life Satisfaction
Research has showed that heavy viewers of TV report lower life satisfaction and higher anxiety.
Many of us watch TV, specifically drama serials, because we want to see the stories unfold for the characters. What’s going to happen to X? What Y get the outcome he/she deserves? Will A and B get together? What will the ending be? It’s all very exciting, and the cliff hangers keep us yearning for more. Then for the whole week, we wait excitedly for the next episode to see what happens. This goes back to my earlier statement: "I don't give a shit!"
I realized many of us watch TV because we see ourselves in the characters. That’s why TV network producers study viewer demographics and produce shows in line with our needs, so we can relate to the characters. We see the characters living life, going through tumultuous challenges, overcoming them and finally achieving what they want. We feel happy for them when they get their happy ending. But what we really want is the same happy ending for ourselves. No matter how many shows we watch and how the characters develop through X episodes, watching TV isn’t going to give us the life we want. To get the life we want, we need to get out there, take action and create results for ourselves, not live vicariously through TV reels. The happy outcome is ours for the taking, if we start working towards it now.
6. Pointless Advertisements
Watching advertisements is one of the worst ways to use our time. A regular 1 hour segment is made up of 40 minutes actual content and 20 minutes advert. That’s 1-third of TV viewing time, which is a lot. The ads are either a trailer for an upcoming TV show, an advertisement for a product/service or an infomercial. The adverts are rarely ever relevant – usually we buy the products because we see the ads, not because we need the products. Many times it’s just an ad to scare us into buying something. This is linked to the next point, which is…
7. Not Watching TV Saves You Money
TV drives us to buy things that we won’t buy. Whether it’s the stand-alone advertisements or integrated product placements, we get spurred to buy things when we see them. And there’s a reason why, too. The advertisements have direct messages and subliminal messaging to drive us to purchase. Research has shown heavy TV viewing is linked to higher material aspirations.
Fact of the matter is, most of the times we buy things because we saw the ad, and not because we have a real need for those things. The adverts play up on your fears and desires to trigger you to buy their products. They tell you, in one manner or another, how your life sucks now and how you will be happier and live a better life after you buy that product. How many times have you watched an ad and feel like “Wow, I have to go buy this when I drop by the store next time” or “That looks good, let me add this to my shopping list”? Have you ever thought if you really need any of that? Consumerism and purchase is rarely a solution for happiness – it’s usually a coverup for unhappiness. We might be happy the instant we buy something new because it is an immediate gratification of a current need, but in the longer-term we dip to our previous state of desire and dissatisfaction. It has been proven that more material goods makes us happy to a certain extent. Beyond that point, happiness is not Read Materialism Breeds Unhappiness for more on this.
It’s been a few years since I stopped watching TV, but I reckon the products advertised are pretty much the same. Shampoo, skincare, toothpaste, slimming services, make-up, food and beverages, restaurants, furniture, etc. In the past, I can be buying different brands of cosmetics, shampoo and skincare in a few months, even though I have not finished using my previous products. Most of the times these purchase behaviors are triggered by ads I see on TV or elsewhere. After I stopped watching TV (and subsequently adverts), I have a lot lesser consumptions inclinations. I only buy things when I need them. Naturally, this cut down my expenditures too.
8. TV Sensationalizes
Sometimes it’s the sensationalization of what’s there, making it bigger than it really is. Other times, it’s something created out of nothing. A lot of things are hyped up. Scenes of people crying, bickering, fighting, taboo, sexual content, ugly human behavior etc are played up a lot, especially on reality TV. Many times, they don’t serve anything other than to create drama and it’s quite pointless. If I’m a TV viewer, I’m watching to either (1) be entertained (2) be informed or (3) be educated. I don’t find hyped up content to be entertaining, informing nor educational. Biased content that reflects the intentions of the TV producers yes, but none of the 3.
There’s also the sensationalization of TV news, which is a whole different topic by itself. I’m halfway through writing an article on this, and will be publishing it within the next week.
9. Your Life Is More Important than the TV Schedule
When I used to watch TV, my schedule was tied to the TV program schedule. Hence, if the TV networks was airing my favorite show at 7pm Wednesday, I would have to free up my weekly Wednesday evenings. When the show started, I would have to abruptly pause whatever I was doing to catch the show. The same thing applied when commercial break ends. After the episode ended, if it was a cliffhanger, I would wait in anticipation for next week’s episode. It was like my life was being steered by TV. After I stopped watching TV, my schedule was freed up. For the shows I do want to watch, I watch them on Hulu or via DVD (Netflix). There’s no need to wait for TV networks to air the shows I want to watch.
10. Build More Meaningful Relationships
TV is one of the favorite pastimes in families. They spend evenings in front of the TV screen, watching show after show. Even though everyone is sitting together in the same room, they aren’t bonding with each other. Each of them is just developing an isolated connection with whatever is on the TV screen. I dunno, maybe it was the way I was raised, but shoot, we would play cards, preferably poker.
Now, imagine if all this time is spent talking to each other. Say, asking how each others days are, understanding each other, discussing tomorrow’s plans, being a part of each others lives, just hanging out. Isn’t that a more meaningful way to connect? Why build a connection with the television and characters on screen when you can be building a connection with real people? TV might be a way to bond with each other, but it’s clearly more fruitful to bond with each other directly. I definitely find the latter more meaningful than the former.
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