Wednesday, August 28, 2002
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Wednesday, August 28, 2002 |
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TV has got a stranglehold on me By MICHAEL BOYLAN The fall television season is almost here. Well, not really. Most series won't return from rerun Hell until the middle of September but I decided that I would update you on how I did avoiding television this summer. Drumroll please. I failed. Ta-Da! That's right. I couldn't stay away from that magical box that brings shows like MTV's "Sorority Life" or Fox's "Bachelorettes in Alaska" into people's homes. I did not learn to speak French, mold my gut into abs of steel or paint a masterpiece. Television has a stranglehold on my life and, in the end, I decided that I needed to breathe deep breaths of substandard programming and near incessant advertising. I'm sure there are more than a few readers out there enjoying a heap of schadenfreude right now, which means enjoying somebody else's misery or failure. I say let them laugh because the summer was not an entire wash. I did read a number of books, started a few writing/video projects, visited friends and relatives and moved into a house. I wasn't in front of the television the entire summer and I believe that was my main goal. One of the best things to happen during the project was I did become more conscious of what I watch on television and what it is ultimately there for, which is the money of all viewers. TV is not there to entertain or educate, it is there to distract and it does a mighty fine job of it too. I think this is because we need distraction, whether it is from a hard day's work, bored and annoying children or a boring evening. Sure, there's good programming out there but there isn't much of it. For every good show there are five or six awful programs that are just there to fill a hole and try to attract a certain demographic so that certain advertisers can be targeted. I read an article recently that said due to products like Tivo, which allow viewers to fast forward through commercials, network executives say all channels may become pay channels before too long. I'll pay HBO prices, if I get HBO quality programming and no commercials. In fact, now that I get satellite television, I have to pay for my local channels anyway. So do all the people out there with cable. Nobody has rabbit ears anymore. We're all paying for network television and networks still need more revenue to get more programming to bring in more revenue. I guess when you're paying every "Friend" a million dollars an epsiode, things get pricey. A friend of mine living in California just quit smoking cigarettes because the price of a pack went over eight dollars. If television gets too expensive, maybe it will go the way of smoking. Eventually, it will become too expensive for anybody to do anymore. I'm not saying television is evil or dangerous to the health of you and those around you and I think people who do say that are way out of line. I do believe however that we all may be a little better off with the television off a little more. There is a beautiful world out there with lots of things to do and, though my TV wasn't black all summer, I did do and see some of those things. |
