Christmas break was coming to a close when I realized, I had been robbed! The thief snuck into my home over Christmas break. In fact, I have reason to believe he snuck into many homes, perhaps even yours. He is sneaking into homes and stealing our most precious assets. The thief is television and the loot is our time.
While ice and snow and sleet thwarted many of my break plans, I was stuck in my home with a whole lot of time and nothing to do. Hmmm … what to do? Before I could even start mulling some creative ideas in my mind the little black box beckoned to me from the corner of the family room. It’s so easy. Just flop down, flip a switch and the world is yours!
Only trouble is, that world isn’t reality. We are all drawn to adventure and mystery, but we will never find it from the couch in our living room. The people on TV are exciting and intriguing because they are living life, not staring at a little black box. TV is easy, it doesn’t take effort or risk or imagination. The most arduous task it requires is locating that remote.
Just think — what if the next time you had a little time on your hands the television wasn’t there? You may sit there for a few minutes in desperation trying to think of another “worthy” use of your time, but I guarantee that boredom would drive your mind to a whole new array of possibilities.
It is more useful to even sleep then to watch TV — you even burn more calories! Your body metabolism is 14.5 percent lower when watching TV than while lying in bed. The inactivity of TV that ruins the energy in your body does the same thing to your mind. The stupor your mind enters is like a reality escaping drug.
Many people use television to escape the reality they are not satisfied with, and paradoxically, they are most likely not happy because they haven’t taken the time to realize what they want and they lack the imagination and energy to actualize their dreams. How will you ever discover your gifts and your passions if you never leave the couch? How do you even know if the thoughts inside your head are your own?
A mere 50 years ago Ray Bradbury wrote in his then-“futuristic” novel “Fahrenheit 451” about the dangers of a society so apathetic that they have allowed books to be outlawed and their lives revolve around cheap entertainment, including television. One character says, “The televisor is real. It is immediate, it has dimension. It tells you what to think and blasts it in. It must be right. It seems so right. It rushes you on so quickly to its own conclusions your mind to protest ‘what nonsense’!”
What did people invest their time in before they left it to be stolen by TV? Along with many other pursuits, they got to know each other. They built real friendships … and Facebook doesn’t count!
The Facebook phenomenon of online friendship and connection is developing into just another lazy excuse to disengage from life. Last semester as students in class tried to show and explain Facebook to our professor, she asked incredulously how often people used the website. One girl responded, “Oh, I check every day to see if I have new friends!”
What?! We desire friends and belonging, but a number on a webpage hardly creates this. These people really are “faceless,” or at least soul-less. How can you know them? Blogging, Friendster, AIM, Live journals — how about we face reality and go face to face?
Abstractly, the consequences of a generation raised on television and technology is a generation of weak-minded individuals. Weak minds and weak hearts breed apathy and boredom. Boredom breeds depression, despair, even violence and destruction. More personally, with the bar set so low, each of us as individuals have an opportunity to rise above those around us dragged down by the lure of incessant television.
Maybe it is too much to ask that we kick the thief of television out of our homes entirely. But, stealing back extra hours to pursue building our minds, our relationships and our passions can set us apart from the rest of our generation.
E-mail comments to Amanda at [email protected].
