Are You Living Life Or Watching A Simulation?

What if tonight, after dinner when you are ready to settle in and relax for a few hours, you didn’t turn the television on?  What would you do then?  My husband would probably just grab the remote and start surfing mindlessly through commercials until he found one that wouldn’t interrupt his couch-napping.  But what if the television wasn’t on?  What if we chose to fight the hypnotic trance that leads us, eyes glazed, into that familiar coma-like stupor.

It is reported that the American home has more television sets than people these days.  We have them in our living rooms, bedrooms, family rooms and kitchens.  I was recently awarded the coveted “Best Wife Ever” title when I gave my husband a flat screen TV for our patio!

But don’t stop there; we have them in our cars and then give our children handheld devices for movie watching once we reach our destinations.  Hotels have always provided in-room television viewing with infinite cable options, but now you’ll find TVs on buses, in restaurants and bars and even at your doctor or dentist office.  Our local hospital even has them in the individual emergency examining rooms.

With the right hardware, your computer can be turned into a television too.  In fact, most television stations now post full episodes of their popular programs so that, heaven forbid, if you miss an episode, you can simply download it and watch it later.

Recording video is much for sophisticated than the days of the old VHS recorders.   With TIVO or your cable provider’s DVR (Digital Video Recorder) you can record what you’re missing and watch it at your convenience… or freeze the screen so you don’t miss a single sentence while you go to the kitchen and reload your nachos.

Statistics vary slightly on the subject, but it seems that once you do the math, the average American spends somewhere between 13 to 18 uninterrupted years of his/her life mesmerized by the television.  And if that isn’t scary enough, imagine how many pounds of junk food is eaten during that time in front of the TV set?  But we aren’t going there right now.

What’s the result of all this television viewing?  You’ve heard the principle of the “Dumbing Down of America”… the methodical destruction and purposeful elimination of the means by which a society educates and enlightens itself…?  I believe television contributes largely to that theory.  Let’s face it we are dumbing down.  We are losing the ability to think for ourselves or entertain ourselves.  We have allowed our society to elevate the common entertainer, actor/actress far above that of historians, scientists or statesmen.  As a result, celebrities influence every aspect of our lives.  They tell us how to dress, what to believe, what to buy and what to think politically.  The news isn’t the news anymore, it’s presented in Game Show format to keep us from becoming bored.  That’s right, we’re losing our attention spans.  Everything is served up in tiny vanilla flavored mini-bites.

So I’ll ask it again… WHAT IF tonight you didn’t turn the television on?  Just cutting back on your TV watching an hour a night will give you extra years to live and enjoy your life.  Tonight, increase your life span… instead of going on auto-pilot and reaching for the TV remote, choose to grab a book or play a board game or card game with your family.  Choose to create your own new experiences instead of reliving the ‘re-run’ of someone else’s.  Let’s choose to live life instead of watching the simulated version.

Posted by:
 Linda Hawkinson