Telebiography
For the 40 days of prayer and fasting, I gave up tv. I don't think of it as a fast exactly (it was kind of wimpy compared to people who were going without food for days at a time), but it was nonetheless a good discipline for me. It's actually moved me a little further toward doing what I've been lazily pondering for a while: disconnecting my satellite.
First, let me say, I really LOVE tv. I'm very selective but easily addicted, and once addicted to a series, I watch every episode, in order, and can repeat the process over and over again, taking apart the story in my mind, analyzing it, imagining more of it. Here are my past love-interests:
Kid-years: the obligatory American junior-high girl phase of watching at least part of Grease every day. And a little of Adam West's Batman (POW! KERBLAM!), the occasional Hayley Mills movie, and Christmas specials.
High school: Moonlighting.
College: the finale of the first season of Friends, with Arthur. Other than that episode, zip.
Philly: a bunch of rented movies, but I mostly just rattled around in my apartment and tried to discover my adult self (ugh).
St. Louis: X-Files, Dawson's Creek (embarrassing but true)
Chapel Hill: Dawson's Creek, Alias, Sex and the City, 24.
Currently: Lost.
And so when I say that I'm thinking of getting rid of my satellite, it's not the move of somebody who sneers at the medium. It's more that I've noticed in the past year that I've wanted to watch more and more tv--I'll be tired when I get home, and I want to sit down and watch tv, and then I can't manage to get up to do anything. Forget trying to grade or work, or even having the ambition to cook anything much, on more and more days.
I think it's that my life seems more and more full, and I had started to watch more tv to relax from it. But tv isn't really relaxing. It's an invitation to let my brain relax into a sluggish mode that's difficult to get out of, but then it's overstimulating in some weird way--maybe emotionally. Sometimes, when I've been watching a lot of tv, I feel myself growing anxious or restless, and then I just want to watch more to tune out the feeling.
During the 40 days, I was pretty busy, and I barely missed tv. But I felt way more focused and productive--in some way, it seemed as if I had more control over my own energy level, as if tv had been a hole in my gas tank. I procrastinated way less, got more done, had fewer moments of abysmal sluggishness. So, hm. It might be an interesting experiment.
First, let me say, I really LOVE tv. I'm very selective but easily addicted, and once addicted to a series, I watch every episode, in order, and can repeat the process over and over again, taking apart the story in my mind, analyzing it, imagining more of it. Here are my past love-interests:
Kid-years: the obligatory American junior-high girl phase of watching at least part of Grease every day. And a little of Adam West's Batman (POW! KERBLAM!), the occasional Hayley Mills movie, and Christmas specials.
High school: Moonlighting.
College: the finale of the first season of Friends, with Arthur. Other than that episode, zip.
Philly: a bunch of rented movies, but I mostly just rattled around in my apartment and tried to discover my adult self (ugh).
St. Louis: X-Files, Dawson's Creek (embarrassing but true)
Chapel Hill: Dawson's Creek, Alias, Sex and the City, 24.
Currently: Lost.
And so when I say that I'm thinking of getting rid of my satellite, it's not the move of somebody who sneers at the medium. It's more that I've noticed in the past year that I've wanted to watch more and more tv--I'll be tired when I get home, and I want to sit down and watch tv, and then I can't manage to get up to do anything. Forget trying to grade or work, or even having the ambition to cook anything much, on more and more days.
I think it's that my life seems more and more full, and I had started to watch more tv to relax from it. But tv isn't really relaxing. It's an invitation to let my brain relax into a sluggish mode that's difficult to get out of, but then it's overstimulating in some weird way--maybe emotionally. Sometimes, when I've been watching a lot of tv, I feel myself growing anxious or restless, and then I just want to watch more to tune out the feeling.
During the 40 days, I was pretty busy, and I barely missed tv. But I felt way more focused and productive--in some way, it seemed as if I had more control over my own energy level, as if tv had been a hole in my gas tank. I procrastinated way less, got more done, had fewer moments of abysmal sluggishness. So, hm. It might be an interesting experiment.
posted by Tara | 5:56 PM
2 Comments:
Lee, welcome back! I would never have pegged you for a sports addict--computer games maybe. ;) Nice to hear from you . . .
We just got our first TV a few years ago and it has slowly crept into a greater and greater place of prominence. In this new apartment, cable comes included with the rent.
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