TV Addicts in the 70s?

I have one more thing to say on the topic of blogs about TV addiction. If you have searched for blogs by people who are addicted to TV, and are trying to quit, you have more likely found a bunch of blogs by people who call themselves TV addicts with pride.

These people say "I am a TV addict!" as if it's a badge of honor, or a cool characteristic about themselves. They think its a quirky feature of their personality.

Can you imagine if someone said "Ha ha ha, I'm addicted to drugs. I can't stop doing drugs, isn't that silly of me?"

Or, "Oh my god, I drank booze for 12 hours this weekend. Can you believe it? I am such a booze hound!"

The thing of it is, television is such a part of our lives now, that people can't remember what it was ever like to not have it around. Many people under 30 can't remember what it was like not to have cable tv, and people under 40 may have always had a VCR in their houses, at least a Betamax, if not VHS.

Before then, we didn't have customized shows, and there were only four to six channels to choose from -- ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, and maybe a couple of local stations. Eventually, FOX came along, but only after cable had been established for many years.

So, what did people do then? My gosh, what did they do? Did they spend all their time surfing between those four crappy little channels? Back and forth, back and forth? Did they have a favorite -- "I ONLY watch ABC."

I don't think so. I think they did other things. TV just didn't have the draw it does now. Yes, sure, people watched it, and some of them watched a lot of it, I'm sure. But it just wasn't as, well, as good as it is now. It wasn't as customized, for one thing. These days, if you have cable, you will probably be able to find something to hold your attention. There are movie channels that show nothing but movies, all day long.

In the old days, back in the 70s, or, if you didn't have cable, the 80s too, the only time movies were on TV was on a Friday or Saturday night (I don't really remember), or maybe on a Sunday, if they were showing a Disney movie.

There was no Tivo. You couldn't record a show on tape and keep it on your shelf, so you could watch it over and over, whenever you felt like sitting and doing nothing. You were at the mercy of the network executives, and if you didn't like what was on TV right then, you had nowhere to turn. You just had to turn it off and walk away.

And so that's what people did. They walked away and did other things. They were in bowling leagues. They sat outside and talked to their neighbors. They played cards. They went for walks. They were healthier.

That, my friends, is a fact. Look it up. People were healthier -- they were less obese and had fewer chronic diseases in the 70s, and to a lesser extent, in the 80s. There are many reasons for this, but I think TV, and the changes that have been made in TV since the 70s, are an important contributor.

People got out more, and did more things, instead of watching TV, because back then TV wasn't as compelling. It is now. Not always, not everything, but TV is way slicker and can draw you in faster now. And it's more customized. There are many many channels to choose from, whatever your bag.

Is TV evil? Are you evil for watching it? No, of course not. But are you living when you are watching TV? No. You are sitting and staring. And you are not even meditating. There have been studies of the brainwaves of people while they are watching TV. I don't remember the particulars, but it wasn't reassuring. I will look them up later. Right now I have to go to bed.

There's Always Time for a Little TV

Someone has actually read this blog, as evidenced by the 1 comment I received today on my first post. It's funny -- a few months before I started this blog, I was searching through websites looking for anti-television stuff, or just stories of people like me, who were addicted to television, and were trying to do something about it. I hardly found any regular websites about quitting tv, but I found quite a few blogs on the subject.

However, I noticed a pattern with most of these blogs ... the author would make the initial post, with a lot of grand language about why they were fed up with tv, and how they hated themselves for watching it, and they would declare a moratorium on tv, and invite all of us readers along with them on their journey, as they quit tv forever.

Then, they wouldn't make any more posts ... or just a few more, and then stop forever.

This would make me mad. Had they started watching tv again, and were just too ashamed to admit it in their blog? Or, had they become so liberated from quitting tv, that they had leapt off into their new, enriching and exciting lives, forgetting all about us readers?

And now, it would appear, I am one of the former. Well, except that I never declared that I would quit tv. Not yet. But I have been slow to make a second post. I've been busy. (I've been watching tv, but I've also been busy.)

Which brings me to a good point. Why do we make time for tv? Of all the things that we have to do and, more importantly, WANT to do in our lives, why do we feel that we have all this time to watch tv?

Or rather, why do we convince ourselves that we're too tired to do anything else but watch tv? We are smart people -- we have interests, no matter how few, that should trump tv any day. Why do we come home from work or school (or from nowhere at all, if we're unemployed), and plop down in front of the tv, exhausted, and just sit in front of it for hours???

Are we REALLY that tired, SO tired, that we can't possibly do anything else besides sit, motionless, occasionally giggling or making a comment, and stare?

Maybe we, all of us tv addicts, should try this: Next time we find ourselves sitting and staring at the tv (or, even better, BEFORE we have turned on the tv), we should just sit motionless, and stare at nothing. Stare at the wall, stare at the bookshelf, stare at a picture on the wall, stare out the window. Whatever. Just sit and stare and be motionless. See how that feels. That's considered meditating by many people.

But you can consider it sitting and staring, for these purposes. When you get bored with sitting and staring, get up and do something else. Because obviously you are not too tired to do anything but sit and stare.

I will try it too. Let's all try it. We have lives beyond our tvs. Let's start living them.