Why I don't watch television

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

I have given up television, except for perhaps two or three events each year.

I think it was two days after 9/11 that I stopped. Like everyone else, I watched all the images of that terrible day and listened to all the commentary and speculation. On the second day beginning the third hour, I realized that there was nothing new for the last hour.

So I simply turned it off.

I hadn't been a massive TV watcher before, but at no time did I regret that decision.

Why I don't watch now might be slightly different than the annoyed reason that i snapped it off that September, maybe not. Then, I grew impatient with the often inane speculation and lack of general perspective on the world. When I do watch the Superbowl, it is with a house full of guests, and up until last year where the Bears went, it was purely a social event with our friends. The commercials are unique, the program not predetermined (although you wonder if the commentary might be).

The major reason now that I don't is that I don't miss it. Not in the least. At the office (that is, when I am not working at my office home) when people talk about their favorite programs, I don't feel any pull.

Part of what influenced my thinking was part of a lecture by Dr. Andrew Weil. While he is a physician, he does come up with some pretty odd ideas. One of these ideas was, for the sake of reducing stress, is to take a week or so off from the radio. At that time, I had a 45 minute commute to work, and I had been listening to an all-news station, or an all-sports station. So I tried simply turning off the radio on the way to work. I suspect that I drove better, and didn't really miss the programs.

Another was from a friend who had given up listening to NPR on the way home as it made him angry—all the bad news of the world, all the time. He chose to listen to a smooth jazz station, and is probably happier.

So my thinking was to not listen to any radio station, and for probably a year before 9/11 I didn't.

So the decision to not watch TV was not totally in a vacuum.

I feel like I am less mentally distracted as a result of no radio and no TV. There aren't too many commercials rattling around in my head, except perhaps for some long ago—"See the USA in your Chevrolet", but maybe that is because this summer I have been writing about fond memories of being on the highway, seeing some chunk of America. Or that Empire Carpet radio jingle that has been on the air in Chicagloand forever.

So some of you might say "but I listen to the radio for some downtime". Well, for me, true downtime is doing nothing, or striving to do nothing. I would think that such is a much more effective practice of downtime than inhaling passively a download that someone else has chosen for you to hear.

So we have a TV and watch the Superbowl and the Academy Awards, and movies from DVD. Ask me about it. I can be pretty annoying.