I wonder if we didn't have TV any longer if people might just pick up books and read? I doubt it. We are now conditioned to TV.
I also wonder how our lives are so shallow today compared to earlier times. As I wandered through Barnes and Noble today, many books piqued my interest. I spent a couple of hours perusing the aisles, reading a few book covers and book pages along with some magazines. I ended up buying a book
Freethinkers : A History of American Secularism. It looks like a good read - it is about the role of secularism in the founding of our great country, but the unfortunate state of affairs now for the average secularist or free thinker and how religion has permeated our government. The other book I'm reading is
The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with Commentary. Interesting to read the Torah with some explanation as to what the hell they are talking about. I'm up to chapter 14 of Genesis. Interesting read. I highly recommend it.
What crossed my mind just as I ventured past the introduction of Freethinker and into the first chapter AND what prompted me to write this post, was how if I was as addicted to TV as some of my contemporaries and apparently many if not most Americans these days, I would never have discovered and learned as much as I have about a lot of things. My whole exploration into religion, atheism, politics, freethinking, agnosticism and the like would be nil. I would have instead a vast knowledge of which made up star won American Idol or how much Joanie loves Chachi (sp?) or whatever. Some of my coworkers can only talk about the latest happenings on Survivor, Seinfeld and whatever other mindless entertainment offered up today. Ask them about a current political issue like the meeting the dems had the other day about the Downing Street Memo or perhaps about a current bestseller at the book store and they would look at you blankly and muster up a response like - "Uh, I didn't hear about that, was that on Oprah today?"
This is not to say I don't watch TV and don't enjoy it. I don't watch very much TV, but I do watch what I feel to be too much of the movie channels.
The thought that entered my mind as I read my book tonight was how wide a variety of subjects, writing styles and such you can experience with books. Books take a long time to read compared to a watching a half hour sitcom or hour long drama, but they are so much broader and deeper. It is like comparing the evening news to the newspaper - the evening news barely scratches the surface and leaves out a lot, of both the depth of the story and the outright omission of many newsworthy events.
It is my belief and I guess sort of a realization that TV does harm to the public. It dumbs us down. It denegrates and diminishes critical thinking. Not all TV does this obviously, but most of the entertainment and even the talk/news shows exploit and are so repetitive; they aren't much better than pure entertainment.
Like I said, nothing wrong with TV in a balanced diet of mind fodder. And no, I don't want the government coming out with a RDA for my reading vs TV vs. movies, vs. Internet vs. whatever. But, what we might want to teach our children is to turn off the tv and experience the real world, and discover reading. And read diverse material, not just things you agree with, perhaps some opposing views.
Here is my suggestion of daily intake:AVERAGE TWO to FOUR HOURS PER DAY:
1. Newspaper/Magazine 30-60 minutes. (20-25%)
2. TV no more than 30 minutes. (10-15%)
3. Internet - 30-60 minutes. (15-20%)
4. Games - no more than 30 minutes. (10-15%)
5. Reading - 60-120 minutes. (35-40%)
That is a full day - I must say - I have just accounted for anywhere from 180 to 300 minutes a day. Maybe percentages would be better (added). So, that is my suggested reading vs tv vs internet vs gaming vs newspaper. You can tell I favor reading.
Now - here is another facet of what is really sickening.
ADD UP HOW MUCH YOU SPEND EACH MONTH FOR CABLE/SATELLITE TV.It is obscene that many of us, me included, pay: $2, $3 or $4 PER DAY for TV???!!! If you spent that same amount on books - you could have a very rich life. But, we have grown immune to the insanity that is cable tv. 100-200 channels - not a high price for that many channels - a real bargain - but think about a $70 cable bill multiplied by 12 - $840 per year.
Think then what you could do with $840 per year. Or $4,200 in five years. You get the belabored picture here. It is a LOT of money. Don't even get me started on the CELL PHONE thing and the fact that that $29.99 plan is actually $39.60 after you add in all the regulatory crap and taxes.
The two items - TV and Cell phones constitute over $100 per month for most households I would venture. $3, $4 or $5 a day for what? The cell phone is a great thing - for its purpose to put us in convenient contact with anyone at anytime - that could be a curse too - but at what price? I guess if you compare it to home residential service, it is pretty cheap as things go.
But - in our hyped up, over stimulated, materialistic, hedonistic and smut-ridden society, it is the market that is king and we are suckered into buying into it.
Cancel your cable for a year and do something different with the money. How about donate it - just for a year. You might just pick up a book and learn the value of books vs. TV and yikes - you might never have cable again!
