Next week is TV Turn Off week, leading me to think about how much I have watched television lately. The stats on the web site suggest that in the average american home, the television is on for 7 hours, 40 minutes every day. It would take me at least two weeks to have the television on that long. I might turn on the television twice a week, and perhaps watch a movie (on television, or video, or DVD) once every two weeks.
So, something that I've wondered is whether I'm actually missing something. There was an article in the newspaper last weekend about a television show with Donald Trump in it, which has popularized the phrase "you're fired." I suspect that almost every one of you reading this know what show that is referring to. The article didn't mention the name of the show, because, of course, everyone already knows. I found this amusing, since I don't know. I also don't know why the phrase "you're fired" would become popular. I expect someone would explain it to me, but I'm not sure why I would care.
And that's really the question. Should I care? Does it matter that I never saw a single eposide of any of the Survivor shows? Does this make me less in touch with the culture? If I don't watch the news, and so don't panic when I'm told to, then can I really be an informed voter? And when I don't get the references to CSI and The Sopranos, am I just as annoying as those folks that don't get it when I make reference to Don Quixote and Robert Frost?
But, at least for now, it's a bit of a moot point. I can barely keep up with all the stuff that I have to do right now. I can't imagine that I'd get anything done if I wasted any more time watching TV.
I'm right there with you. I have a really nice, rather large, Sony widescreen TV. But I only use it for watching movies on DVD or occasionally playing a video game on my playstation. I don't have cable or satellite, nor do I miss them. Until I finally bought the TV last fall I hadn't had a working one for about a year and a half. I get most of my information from reading, friends or the radio.
Posted by: jaaron on April 16, 2004 04:58 PM