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March 28, 2007
On the "No TV" thing
Categories: Pictures
Loyal readers (ha!) may remember I gave up TV for lent, but would still watch DVD's. With just under two weeks left before Easter, I thought I'd give an update on my promise.
First of all, I admit I have not been 100% faithful to my promise. I did watch some of NCAA basketball tournament. Winthrop played two games and I watched most of both of those. I also watched a few others, mainly on a Sunday afternoon. Not exactly devout, am I.
Still, I haven't just turned on the TV and watched any shows. No channel surfing. No Pardon the Interruption. No Scrubs reruns. Just some basketball and DVD episodes of Lost and How I Met Your Mother (and movies). Not too bad, I think.
Here's what I've found out: In certain ways, TV is really bad for me. It can certainly be a time suck. It can certainly eat up hours and hours, leaving nothing in return. Not watching TV has directly resulted in me reading more (although I am not reading anything now -- more on that later). Not watching TV contributed to me getting more done faster on my film and philosophy of education project. And not watching TV has directly led me to writing this entry at 9:00 on a Wednesday night. That's all good.
But here's the other thing: Sometimes I want NOT to think. I spend most of my time thinking, focused on some problem or another -- how to present material to my classes, articles I want to write, what to do for baby preparation, how can we pay down are debt faster, will the new car hold up over time, etc. TV is great for non-thinking escape, which we all need from time to time. In the beginning of Lent, I spent a lot of my evenings working on something or another -- grading papers, reading for the film paper, reading for class. That was good and necessary, but could easily lead to burn-out. I am sure I'd find other ways to not-think, but TV is an easy way of vegging out.
When Lent's over, I am sure I'll watch TV again. But I hope I am more aware of my watching. The trick is to be able to turn off the brain for awhile without the complete time-suck.
Posted by Nakia at March 28, 2007 09:04 PM