Maybe it’s ironic that a television actress provides a great
quote about the negatives of television, but there it is! “Life is so fast these days, and we’re exposed to so much
information. Television makes us a
witness to such misery.” ~ Gates McFadden (Dr. Beverly Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation).
We are a television-free household. I say this with some guilt, since I worked in
television production for quite a few years and on several good shows that made
a difference in the world (Star Trek:
Deep Space Nine and ellen) and
know that the media CAN do good things.
However, for us, it just causes undue stress. One of the diagnoses my son struggles with is Generalized Anxiety Disorder.
I found that when we watched television when he was younger, he became
agitated. Not only that, but he always
got a bad case of the “gimmes” – gimme this, gimme that! We get our news online from various
sources, watch videos on YouTube, and we watch movies I have approved. However, our television broke two nights
ago. So now, we are watching them on the
portable DVD player.
The time we could be spending watching television goes to
more important things. We read lots of books,
play online (well, not THAT much more important, though it IS more
interactive), play outside and have friends over. Ian also uses his time to write and illustrate comics and to make Lego stop-motion movies on his 3DS. Much more productive! I am taking up creating mosaics again, which
I love making… when I have some projects completed, I will post pictures. Now that fall is here (or is it winter already,
sure feels like it) I am busy putting up food – canning, dehydrating and pickling. I just find that having a television–free
life makes life better. Our friends and
family think we are weird, but they like us anyway, even if we have no clue what
is on the tube. We have time for what
matters to us, and that is what matters.
I read somewhere that Gates McFadden is an INFJ. When I worked on Star Trek: First Contact, I only worked with her for three days,
and so I did not get to know her at all.
I wonder if she has a television-free household?
You can follow her on Twitter at @gates_mcfadden.
We trimmed cable TV from our budget for two years. And yes, you are correct in mentioning less of a case of the "gimmes". The kiddos quickly got used to the lack of repetitive commercials and programming. We could also control the content much easier and still had Netflix. If you've chosen this path, then go with it!
ReplyDeleteThe "gimme's" drove me nuts :)
ReplyDelete