...or so said a friend of mine some time ago. I've always liked this thought, because whenever a TV is on, people can't help but watch, even when there's very little worth watching. I dislike restaurants with TVs for this very reason, because the TVs draw my attention away from the people I'm with and the conversation I'm having.
Of course, the problem with TVs goes beyond restaurants. Virtually all Americans and Australians now own at least one TV (some own many so they don't even have to pretend to be spending time with their family while they watch TV). In Australia, unless you have cable, there are only two to seven channels, depending on where you live, which limits your nightly viewing options. Still, I had somehow developed an addiction to shows four nights a week.
I recently gave up TV. When the season finale of Grey's Anatomy was announced, my response was "Thank God" (you decide which one). The Grey's Anatomy season finale meant I would no longer be tied to Meredith's weekly indecision about whether to stick with Dr. McDreamy. It meant I was free to spend one more evening a week doing something else, like write blog entries, or read a good book, or talk with my spouse! That's when I knew that I was ready to give up TV.
It was surprisingly easy. Two things conspired to make it this way. The first was the shift of dinner time to before my son's bedtime of 7:00 PM. The second, was that the networks obliged me by showing all the season finales and then starting the typically uninspiring summer line up. Every few evenings I wonder what's on the tube, and there have been a few times where I've just felt like watching, but then I remember that summer line up and decide to read a book instead.
Giving up TV has been great. I have more time to get things done, I'm better rested, and I'm reading more than I have since college.
Unfortunately, I know that once the long dark of winter consumes Melbourne, I'll be sucked back in. Hopefully, now that I've found so many other things to do during my evenings, I will only allow myself to watch one or two shows, the really good ones, if such a thing exists.
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As a great fridge poem once said, "TV is my friend, and you are not, I urge you to watch it". Once it's on, it can suck you in to the extent that you become oblivious, perhaps even to the extent of being unfriendly, to the people around you.
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