Apparently people watch around 150 hours of television per month, which is kinda scary. I’ve been minus a television at home for the past couple of years on and off, and when you appreciate just how much time people typically waste watching garbage on tv it becomes quite liberating to literally retake your life.
Give it a try for a couple of weeks and see how you get on. I can still pick up the odd Everton game online, or the Tour de France via Eurosport.com, and of course the ever excellent TED provides a ready stream of wonderful content to consume. Fine content, when I want it, where I want it.
So why do we do it?
I remember reading about a father who suggested his children give up tv for a while, and during the tv free period his children read more and generally became considerably smarter. Alas they found it harder to converse with their peers because tv provides so many shared topics of conversation that if you don’t consume it, you can easily feel alienated.
Alas it’d be kinda dull if everyone conformed so maybe if we all do without the good ol’ idiot box for a couple of weeks and see how we get on.
So you’ve got something to focus your eyes on though here’s an interesting talk by Steven Johnson, author of the excellent Emergence (a birthday present book from my brother that got me hooked on that whole meme), at TED in Oxford. Enjoy it, then go and do something worthwhile with your day.
