Throw Out Your TV - Article

[Dimension]

This is an unfinished article that I have been writing for a site of mine. The opinions and arguements within are those of my OWN. I am not force feeding anyone here. Its your choice to read on. Please also note that this document has not yet been spell-checked.

Why does TV suck?

The site doesn't have enough bandwidth for me to list every reason why television is so bad and even if it did -- you'd need a life-time to read through it all. The main reason, in my opinion, is that television is a spoon. It feeds you -- and I'm not talking about your greens. I've complied a list of several arguements about why people should brick their television sets. I do not expect you to literally throw out your television, I don't even expect you to stop watching it. My aim is simply to give my opinions and then let you decide for yourself.

1) Television is an escape from parenting.

Hands up how many parents let their children sit in front of a screen for five hours, plus, each day watching episode after episode of visual junk? Fair enough if they're watching a couple of hours of National Geographic -- but they aren't. Their watching escapism shows and cartoons. Is staring at a colourful screen for hours on end really testing their intelligence? Are they really learning from these programmes? The answer, of course, is no. But who cares right? Mum and Dad get a couple of hours off from parenting. Great.

Oh, but then theres over five minutes of commericals every quarter of an hour (if that). Glossy advertisments for expensive plastic toys which cost the manufactures peanuts to make. "Mummy, I want that one! Please! Please! Tommy's got one. Please, please?". Television is subtle propaganda. Its brainwashing. Its addictive. Its dangerous. Its unhealthy. Is that what you want for your child? Is that the best your going to offer them? Seriously, a video game is more beneficial for them. At least then they have to use a portion of brain power.

2) Television is passive.

You've just come home from work. You jump into your chair and knock the TV on -- you sit there for hours. HOURS. HOURS. HOURS. Once more; HOURS! I KNOW this is true. I've been there. I've done it. I haven't just got the t-shirt, I've got the entire clothing store. I speak from experience.

Life is short. One of the oldest cliches there is, but its damn true. If you died tomorrow, what did you achieve? You know all the character names from 'Neighbors'. You know who shot JR in 'Dallas'. You got more questions correct than a contestant on 'The Weakest Link'.

Well give yourself a round of applause.

Obvisously, I'm exagerrating -- but is it that far from the truth? You waste a third of your life sleeping. You waste a third of your life working. Please, please, please, don't waste the other third staring into a box.

Television is passive. Its an escape. You don't have to do anything to watch TV apart from just that - watch TV. Instead read a book, listen to music, go out and socialise, do something constructive. Unless your job is television related you will gain VERY LITTLE from watching TV.

3) "Theres nothing on."

How many times have you heard that expression? I hear it everyday over my friends house or from my parents. Of course theres something on, theres always something on! What they really mean is - theres nothing on worth watching. Well, what is worth watching? Eastenders? Friends? The Simpsons? Big Brother? Even if your favourite show is on, ask yourself, is this worth watching? Am I going to gain anything from watching this or am I just wasting twenty-five minutes of my life?

In my house we have Sky Digital which is the biggest package of channels available in Britain. Theres roughly 300 to 400 channels. I'm now going to turn my TV on and see if theres anything on that I would enjoy watching.

After a quick scan I found that there is only one thing on that I would watch -- out of 400 channels. An episode of Frasier. Not a personal favourite but a fairly amusing show. Oh, but guess what?

IT'S A REPEAT!

What else is on?

- Big Brother Live
- Coloumbo repeats
- Eastenders omnibus
- Jerry Springer
- TEXT-2-WIN
- The Ricki Lake Show
- Buffy The Vampire Slayer
- And about a hundred 'house make-over' and 'step by step cookery' shows.

And we pay £41.00 a month for this. Great to know your getting your money's worth isn't it?

Ok maybe I'm being a little harsh. I mean there is TWELVE movie channels! Let's have a look at what films are on tonight.

- 2 Fast 2 Furious
- Cabin Fever
- Dumb and Dumberer

Not only would I NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER -- I'll repeat, EVER, watch any of these films but these have been repeated every night for the past two months.

Again, £41.00 anybody?

4) Reality TV and Soap Operas.

Do I have to expand on this? Really? Seriously? Your kidding, yeah?

I can't figure this out. Every summer a show comes on called Big Brother. It puts ten people into a purpose-built house which they cannot leave until they are evicted.

The words perverted, shallow, immoral and degrading all pop into my head.

YET, millions of people tune into the 24/7 live broadcasts and, *get this*, WATCH PEOPLE SLEEP. They waste up to ten hours a day watching people, through a voyuersitic set of cameras, eat, sleep, shit and sometimes (if the contestants are hoping to score a magazine deal after the show) have sex.

Please, if you are one of the people who are 'addicted' to this show, please tell me why. I'm dying to know because I can't draw a conclusion.

This, however, is not the lowest that the television companies will go. A new trend of celebrity (and I use that word, very, very loosely) reality shows are popping up. So your thinking "Awesome, who's in there? Ray Winstone? Eric Clapton? Jennifer Lopez? Whoa, imagine that!" -- No. Instead you get a couple of page 3 girls; a washed out, one hit wonder; an actor who played a tiny part in a sitcom thirty years ago; a ex-politician and a former television presenter who's got a familiar face but you can't remember where the hell you've seen him.

Celebrities, yeah? No, normal people who by some miracle had 15 minutes of fame and are now trying to revive their careers by eating bugs in a jungle or teasing the audience with a loose bikini.

I hate to use this word because its an easy way of insulting something but in this case I think its appropriate -- this SUCKS!

But wait! This isn't the worst part! How do these shows make money (apart from ten minutes of intelligence-insulting advertisements running through each episode)?

YOU SPEND YOUR OWN MONEY RINGING UP AND VOTING FOR THEM! ARE YOU INSANE? IS YOUR LIFE THAT MEANINGLESS?

More people vote for reality TV shows than they do in the general election. Sickening isn't it?

And thats just reality TV. Now on to soap operas.

'Vicki has just been dumped by her boyfriend Brad. Brad is bi-sexual and has a scar from a volcano eruption that killed both his parents and left him scarred for life. He is now leaving the village with his transexual boyfriend Vera. Meanwhile the village gangster, John, has shot his wife in the village pub -- but things get more confussing as the pub landlord seen him do it and is now threatening to tell John's son who is not really his son, but his uncle! Over the other side of the village the local vet has been found having an affair with a guinea pig and his wife AND mistress AND lover AND incestual sister have all found out! Tune in for next weeks episode!'

Ok, ok -- they're not THAT bad. But their not far off.

Why watch actor's play out WRITTEN scenario's when you have your own life to live?

[Trinity]

It's a decent article, but doesn't say anything we don't all already know. But yeah, I agree with the sentiment - TV sucks. And I'd brick it as you suggest, but then what would I watch my Buffy DVDs on?

[ilovemovies]

It's all personal preference. You could EASILY have the same arguements for watching movies, sporting events, theater, ect. I'm more of a movie guy than a television, but there are a few tv shows that better are better than almost all the movies that come out. I mean, 24, Alias and Lost are, in my opinion, better than any movie that has come out in 2005 so far! And House is better than all but maybe my top 5 movies.

[Asokan]

Dunno about "House" (never heard of it), but I agree with everything else ilovemovies said. And Trinity is also right in claiming that there isn't a single original thought in the piece. If you have to bash the geeks then do it in a smart and funny way, dude!

[Beeblebrox]

I think you're throwing the baby out with the bath water. It's a bit like saying that supermarkets are bad for you because they sell cookies. They do sell cookies, but they also sell vegetables and fruit. And even the cookies are okay if you eat them in moderation.

The problem with TV isn't the box. People can do what they want and watch what they want. I certainly agree that people watch too much TV and care more about pop culture than they do important news. But that's not really TV's fault any more than it's McDonald's fault we're so fat. We buy it, we put it in our bodies. It's our fault.

And you don't have to necessarily watch what the stations send your way either. I spend most of my TV time watching movies, not TV shows.

[Cronos]

Originally posted by ilovemovies
It's all personal preference. You could EASILY have the same arguements for watching movies, sporting events, theater, ect. I'm more of a movie guy than a television, but there are a few tv shows that better are better than almost all the movies that come out. I mean, 24, Alias and Lost are, in my opinion, better than any movie that has come out in 2005 so far! And House is better than all but maybe my top 5 movies.

agree with everything here (aside from Lost, that has yet to appear in the UK )