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IsTVReallyAddictive 15 - 04 Feb 2009 - Main.AnjaliBhat
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I know we have touched on this in class, and that we have touched on much more that should perhaps be far more troubling, yet I keep coming back to TV. So, forgive this post for not being on the readings themselves, but it’s been on my mind. I have to wonder, is TV really destroying my ability to retain information? Is it really so simple that, as we heard growing up, television rots your brain? I have to admit that I watch a good deal of TV in a week—at least an hour a day and much more on the weekends. I eat dinner in front of the TV, and my breaks from studying tend to be curling up on the couch and watching a TIVO’d episode of House. Since TV first came up—I’ve been telling myself that I should go a week without watching it just to see what happens. But I haven’t, and when it actually comes down to it, it feels a lot harder than I would have thought. I was at first skeptical in class of the claim that TV is addictive (because, of course, I’m not addicted—the classic response). But this weekend I found that I’d gone through all my episodes of House, and ended up watching a show that just wasn’t good, and that I didn’t even like, just because I wanted to watch something. Google searches actually reveal quite a few websites on the topic, and some contain “survivor” stories of the cured. So I have to wonder, am I really addicted to television? | | |
- Alex, it's time for a chat. Please make it convenient to drop in on my office hours on Thursday 5 February anytime between 10:30am and 1:00pm. Thanks.
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I would say the difference between daydreaming and watching TV as forms of escapism is the daydreaming is, to some extent, creative and self-directing. If you watch TV as a form of escapism (as opposed to for some other reason), the point of it really is to shut your brain off and zone out, right? Whereas with a daydream, you are escaping into your brain, not from your brain.
This doesn't make excessive daydreaming healthy, but I think it makes it qualitatively different from more mentally passive forms of escapism.
-- AnjaliBhat - 04 Feb 2009 | | |
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