Have you ever caught yourself sitting on your living room couch, glued to the television, watching a show that you have no interest in whatsoever? Well, you are not alone. I have been in this situation many of times in my life and have felt time slipping through my hands at the cost of cruddy TV shows.
TV is overrated.
During my younger years growing up I would spend countless hours in front of the idiot box, procrastinating my homework. I must admit that Nickelodeon was extraordinarily fabulous, to say the least. Sure it is not always educational, but hey, it was entertaining. Another magnificent program I would like to highlight would definitely be “Pee Wee’s Playhouse,” despite all of the drama Paul Reubens may have caused. Shows like “Pee Wee’s Playhouse” and others like “Pete and Pete” are permanently part of my childhood. Once great classics like those were gone, TV lost its desirability to me.
Ever since I have been away at college there has been a large decrease in the percentage of my time spent watching TV during the course of a day. It is great. So what is it about TV that is so awful?
Two words: reality shows. The hyped-up generation of reality shows are one of the many bad quality shows, yet they can capture you for hours at a time. To make a show that is practically a soap opera ‘unscripted’ with ‘real people’ is not all that creative, but very addicting. It is kind of like those Pringles commercials, “Once you pop, you just can’t stop.” Once you have the remote in your palms, you need to realize that valuable time will be consumed by this devil box. If you are able to connect thoughts in your brain to your fingertips and change the channel, it is most likely that the next channel is going to have pretty much the same program with a different name. I go from watching “The Real World” to “The Surreal Life,” then to “Supernanny” to “Nanny 911,” and to “Trading Spouses” to “Wife Swap,” and again “Three Wishes” to “Extreme Makeover: House Edition,” and to “What Not to Wear” to “How Do I Look?” all varying from FOX, NBC, ABC and even TLC. The list goes on and on. Once one station comes up with an idea, the other must hurry up to come up with the same exact concept and duplicate it.
Besides the fact that these are lame shows, I still cannot tear myself away from watching. When, and if I put the television on, it is only if I know that something good is going to be on for sure. What happens next may be a little shocking. I cannot turn it off! Whatever show follows the program, which I took time out of my hectic schedule to watch, is now on and has my brain in a headlock. I cannot avert my eyes or ears, even if it may be an annoying commercial for Empire Carpets with their catchy slogan of ” 5-8-8,2-3-hundred, Empire Today!”
It is embarrassing.
On those very few occasions I find myself feeling like a waste of life. These terrible commercials and lousy reality shows have caused me to revamp my thoughts towards TV to something negative for the most part.
So you ask, what is it that you do watch? Well, that is a simple answer: “Sex and the City,” “Seinfeld” and “Family Guy.” Those would be the few television shows I mean to intentionally watch. All of the rest are just accidental. I am actually somewhat proud to say that I am a recovering TV-aholic.
Posted to the web by Tim Hague
