Headed for Quakerdom
So, most people who know me know that I don’t get television. I mean, at my house. Our choices are either no channels or a dish, and to be honest, it’s just not worth the dish. This does not mean we are virtuous, nor are we promoting a lifestyle choice (ie, kill your television, which got old really fast, did it not?). It simply means that we are too tightfisted to spring for a dish. We have a tv, and rent lots of movies, and own some tv series dvds. And so anyway, there we are, without television.
Oh, and did I mention I live out in the sticks? That, after six years I got an internet connection for the first time this summer? Oh, yes, I’m isolated, all right. Anyway. I’ve gone without television for small periods throughout my life – like in college, senior year when I lived in a basement apartment and couldn’t get any channels except for Fox when we arranged the tin-foil just so, which we did every day at six o’clock for the Simpsons. For the most part, that year was television-less. But I was constantly at other people’s houses, the way you are in college, gathered on couches, snacking and watching television, usually with at least one person who is trying to get drunk. So there wasn’t this sense that I have now, after missing television for six years. This sense that I’ve missed things.
I can safely say that I think I am a different person because of it - so removed. And ignorant. I don’t know what TiVo is. I pretend to, but I don’t. I know it’s some new-fangled thing for the television, but that’s it. It’s like I’ve already skipped into my seventies, and have to lean forward and ask people to speak up as they try to explain current technology, at which point my eyes glaze over and I nod off.
I stopped watching television just as reality shows were starting to be on. I don’t know when Survivor started, but I never saw an episode. As a result, the very formatting of television has been basically revolutionized since I’ve stopped watching it. Everything is set up differently. Commercials, news shows especially, prime time, everything.
But here’s what I’ve noticed, and I know it’s been said before, but you can take it from me, someone who really actually likes tv, and is a would-be regular junkie: television is fucked. I mean it. It’s really messed up. It’s flashing, screaming, roaring, rapid scene after scene. That’s what I see when I watch television. All I can see is flashes of stuff, color, lights, and the noise. It’s so friggin’ loud. I can’t focus on whatever the show I’m watching is actually about, because I’m dealing with sensory overload (and too many jump cuts). And I even like loud stuff, as is evidenced by our stereo’s current volume setting. But television is messed up, and sort of spooky. Sometimes it reminds me of the Thunderdome, and the creepy emcee. It wouldn’t surprise me if they started having game shows where people bet their lives, or families or whatever. After all, they already trade families, spouses, houses, whatever. Again, pretty fucked.
Am I the only one who feels like television is spooky in a sort of mesmerizing way? Or maybe I should just become a Quaker. Embrace the simple life.
Oh, and did I mention I live out in the sticks? That, after six years I got an internet connection for the first time this summer? Oh, yes, I’m isolated, all right. Anyway. I’ve gone without television for small periods throughout my life – like in college, senior year when I lived in a basement apartment and couldn’t get any channels except for Fox when we arranged the tin-foil just so, which we did every day at six o’clock for the Simpsons. For the most part, that year was television-less. But I was constantly at other people’s houses, the way you are in college, gathered on couches, snacking and watching television, usually with at least one person who is trying to get drunk. So there wasn’t this sense that I have now, after missing television for six years. This sense that I’ve missed things.
I can safely say that I think I am a different person because of it - so removed. And ignorant. I don’t know what TiVo is. I pretend to, but I don’t. I know it’s some new-fangled thing for the television, but that’s it. It’s like I’ve already skipped into my seventies, and have to lean forward and ask people to speak up as they try to explain current technology, at which point my eyes glaze over and I nod off.
I stopped watching television just as reality shows were starting to be on. I don’t know when Survivor started, but I never saw an episode. As a result, the very formatting of television has been basically revolutionized since I’ve stopped watching it. Everything is set up differently. Commercials, news shows especially, prime time, everything.
But here’s what I’ve noticed, and I know it’s been said before, but you can take it from me, someone who really actually likes tv, and is a would-be regular junkie: television is fucked. I mean it. It’s really messed up. It’s flashing, screaming, roaring, rapid scene after scene. That’s what I see when I watch television. All I can see is flashes of stuff, color, lights, and the noise. It’s so friggin’ loud. I can’t focus on whatever the show I’m watching is actually about, because I’m dealing with sensory overload (and too many jump cuts). And I even like loud stuff, as is evidenced by our stereo’s current volume setting. But television is messed up, and sort of spooky. Sometimes it reminds me of the Thunderdome, and the creepy emcee. It wouldn’t surprise me if they started having game shows where people bet their lives, or families or whatever. After all, they already trade families, spouses, houses, whatever. Again, pretty fucked.
Am I the only one who feels like television is spooky in a sort of mesmerizing way? Or maybe I should just become a Quaker. Embrace the simple life.
posted by erin | 7:12 PM
2 Comments:
Vinny and I had a short stint of television while living in the Birchmont house. Before that I hadn't had tv since I lived at home (like 14 years ago)...now we are tv-less again. I don't miss it but, I'll admit, I did enjoy a year worth of saturating myself in the total fucked-up-ness of television. The thing that I noticed with the current media trend is COMPETITION. Yeah, Survivor is probably responsible for this...but I'm amazed at what GREAT LENGTHS people will go to to become the top dog. Sometimes it get downright hurtful to watch. Americans, in my opinion, are a mean and greedy bunch.
I will, however, miss Sex in the City (wait, isn't that just re-runs anyway?? shows how dedicated I am) and Project Runway...nothing I can't live without or, for that matter, borrow the DVD from you though. :)-
We've had only PBS for a year, and I was starting to really enjoy that. But we don't get PBS in our new place, though we do get Fox, 29, and a Christian channel. This morning in between bursts of unpacking energy, I watched snippets of Family Feud, Tyra Banks's talk show (on which a very beautiful woman was trying a fad diet to lose weight before her wedding), and a court show (on which a woman was suing a man whose son egged her house). And though I admit to preferring these shows over eating lunch alone and in silence, I was struck hard by the lameness of it all.
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