A Farewell to Catatonic TV watching

No, really... I'm done. Except now there's 2 hours of Soul Train reruns from the 70s. Look at those flares and those moves! I didn't know they still had that on!

See, I was raised in a house with a TV in every room, so I've known the joy of finding shows worth watching and the drone of having that thing on in the background. And for a long time I liked it, every humming moment. But now, I'm influenced more by people who either only turn the TV on for one show or simply own a TV for its DVD or VHS watching capabilities, and for me, NOT FOR EVERYONE mind you, this is a great blessing. I may be proven wrong at some point but I've been moving toward this for a while - the end of my habitual resistance to pressing the off button on the TV. There are good things on the tele, but I'd rather turn ON the TV to see them rather than keep the bloody thing on until I get to them. Can I hold myself to that - of course I can. Do you care - who knows. And why a blogging pronouncement? Because I was so very fortunate to see tonight:
Steven Seagal breaking an elbow joint,
2008's G.O.P presidential candidates bully their way through pedantic crappy speeches (and John McCain didn't come off nearly as bad),
Kobayashi win a commentated hamburger-eating contest, complete with multiple camera angles and slow-mo shots and a fist-pumping crowd,
Peter Brady and his model girlfriend try on clothes which made them look slim and called it something that would HELP ME,
Harrison Ford star in a movie now somehow showing up on the HISTORY channel,
Fox News and MSNBC simultaneously reporting on the story behind who fathered (the deceased) Anna Nicole Smith's child,
How much my colon needs this pill which will bring my bowels quietly to some kind of peace they have never known before,
Poker, poker bloody damn sunglasses frowny-faced overweight not sexy poker,
Seagal break another dude's nose (same show...had to happen)
Unnamed women awkwardly handle the silicon jelly balls which will soon become their breasts, with the chance to watch it all happen if I stay tuned,
Men battling to get off a bus and somehow find favor in a woman they were making fun of on the bus minutes before,

I know, I could have turned it off, and that's my point, yet you know how short-attention-span theater dictates what we are given on TV. Some shows are there to educate and I would like to watch them (public access, PBS, and Discovery to start), but you have to find them. No matter your taste, you really only have a handful of shows you like, right? I don't offer a solution to anything, because the internet offers a ripe selection and you already know what I am saying when it comes to how much TV can turn us into drones.

But my hope is that maybe we can just spend more time turning off TVs. And when someone says HEY I WAS WATCHING THAT you can ask them WERE YOU REALLY and then they can answer, and I hope that at least half of them can't say yes. A quick yes to looking at the TV guide first to see if something you like is on makes it more possible that one might instead say no to TV and yes to something a little more spontaneous and real-life. We can wake up on our own! Just turn the damn thing off!

And if not, then I am a huge fan of the mute button... :)