A Green Fire

Everyone who knows me knows I don’t watch TV.  I would like to say I don’t have a TV, but I do.  What I don’t have is cable service, a satellite service, or rabbit ears.  My TV picks up no channels, and I don’t watch television shows.

I gave up watching television when I went to college.  I knew that I had a bad TV habit, and if I took one with me, I knew I would watch TV instead of studying, writing papers, or sleeping.  When I graduated and moved into my first house, I resisted getting a TV.  I have never regretted it.

I decided I wanted to have real experiences, I wanted real memories. So much of my childhood is memories of the shows I watched, not the things I did.  I remember some characters and storylines better than friends I had in elementary school.

Televisions are pervasive, and what they teach is threaded throughout every aspect of our lives.  TV teaches you that your house is dirty, and to small, and just not good enough.  TV says your clothes are out of date, your milk is the wrong kind, and for sure, you are too fat and ugly.  TV teaches all the time, directly and indirectly.  When you watch TV, your brain goes into a passive absorbing state.  Mostly, TV teaches you that your entire life is just not good enough and there is something you have to buy to make your life better.  Well, I reject that message.  I think the best way to appreciate the life you have is to live the life you have, and stop giving your attention to a flickering box.

TV Free America has some great information if you want all the statistics.  The one that stood out the most to me is that on average, a TV is on six hours and forty seven minutes a day.  That’s just the average which means in a lot of homes, it is on seven, eight, nine hours a day.  What could a person do with that time?  One of the biggest complaints of most people is that they don’t have enough time to get everything done that they want or need to do.  What if they just turned off the TV?  How many hours could they reclaim if they eradicated this addiction?

How long can you go without watching TV?

There is a great article in the New York Times about the effects of too much TV viewing.

Two things in the article really stood out to me. Children who watch a lot of tv develop a “two-minute mind”. This means anything they have to think about, they don’t want to because they have developed a limited attention span. Children with a two minute mind are impatient and have trouble organizing their thoughts.

Also, children who view a lot of tv are much more likely to take up smoking. The article did not go into this fully, but I have some thoughts about it. Anyone who starts smoking knows how addictive it is, but, not just physically. Smoking is something you can do in two to five minutes. Smoking calms your mind if you are feeling jittery. Smoking “gives you time to think.” Smoking gives you something to do with your hands if you feel nervous and smoking gives you a reason to go outside if you are in a room or situation that you want an exit from.

For someone with a two minute mind, I can see how having a long conversation, being still for a long time, or being patient would be difficult. Smoking gives such a person a perfect crutch.

I know tv viewing and smoking are big issues with a lot more sides to them. It’s interesting to see how in this one way, they go together.

I first gave up TV when I went to college.  I knew I would have to study and do well to keep my scholarships, and I knew, for me, TV would be too distracting.  I didn’t manage to avoid TV all together.  There was a TV in the lounge area of each hall, and my parents still had a TV at their house.

When I got married, two years after graduation, I was lucky that my husband shared my views on TV and we didn’t have one for a while.  Finally, some friends gave us one, said take it or it’s going to the landfill.  Well, we took it, and we subscribed to a satellite service.

Before I knew it, I was hooked again.  I watched TV from the time I got home from work until I went to bed. I kept the service for a little while after my divorce, but not for long.

I had one more brief time of TV addiction after that, but when hurricane Katrina came through and took out my dish, I said goodbye again.  So far, I have managed to stay off the plug-in drug.

I know that most people could not imagine life without TV although I think now, more people would give it up before they would sacrifice their computer and Internet connection.  TV viewing sucks your time, sucks your attention, raises your panic and worry levels and desensitizes you to emotions.  People mimic what they see, and unfortunately, much of what is on TV is examples of behavior that no one should copy. 

Sure, as a culture, or a generation, we have stories of shows we liked, and episodes we remember fondly.  However, I realized TV gives you memories of things you watch.  I want memories of things I live.  How many memories do you have of things you did as a kid, or even as an adult? Memories that are completely seperate from TV viewing.  No having people over to watch a show, a game, a world event.  No talks at work about that amazing program you saw last night.   I love hearing stories from my grandparents life, and from my parents.  When I am old, I want to talk about things I did, not what shows I watched.

Since this is also a blog about living a green life, eliminating TV from my life saves electricity from all the hours it is not on. I have time to read, to cook, to garden, to email or call friends and family.  I go for walks in the woods behind my house, and I build things.

Not having TV for all these years has been wonderful for me.  I encourage everyone to reduce their viewing time.  I know not everyone can give it up, but if you can, it is worth it.