Thursday, September 08, 2005

Life without a Television

Is it possible at all ? I've always wondered. TV in my view is one of the greatest 'time pass' devices of the century. Studies have revealed that americans watch on an average 5 hours of television per day. Japanese are next watching on an average of 4 hours per day. The multi billion dollar cable industry thrives on TV. From what I know there are atleast 500 channels airing programmes from sports to nature to adult entertainment. All said and done, is it worth spending 5 hours a day infront of a TV?
In my opinion, definitely not. These days, TV has become so rampant that day to day lifestyle is designed around TV programmes. Breakfast, while watching 'breakfast today', dinner wathcing 'Kyoon ki saas bhi kabhi bahu thi' etc etc. One incident literally shocked me: My friend's wife called him up, and asked his parents to record an episode of some reality show because she lost power in her house. The first thing that my uncle does when he wakes up is turn on the TV. My parents and my sis are addicts to some of the soaps.
When such is the craze around TV and cable, I've opted to live without one as long as I can. Ever since I moved to portland, I havent bought a TV. Though it felt a bit wierd in the first week not to have a TV ( my hands would involutarily fumble for a remote ), I've gotten used to it. Not having a TV gives me so much time to pursue other activities,especially reading. It also helps me in sleeping early, and thereby waking up early. There's also lot of time available for introspection.
Speaking of reading, am picking up some wierd books these days -
Histories - Herodotus, The Prince - Niccolo Machiavelli, Stupid White Men - Michael Moore, Love and Death: Murder Of Kurt Cobain.

3 comments:

Hemant said...

Welcome to club mate!
It is being around 3 months now I switched on my T.V;I switched on last time jst to play some ps2 game ... you jst give 30 more minutes in surfing and you might get all news what you see in TV in few hours.

ekantha said...

If you like rooms that echo, is it that you like hearing your own voice and sounds being enhanced and elaborated upon? Is it that you are curious to hear what you sound like to the rest of the world and to have your sentiments communicated? Do you seek or feel some sort of response in the sound that continues and repeats itself? Is there something profound to be recovered/retained/remembered collectively?

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