For my monthly project in June, E and I cut out television. This was easy for a number of reasons: 1) We moved in June, and so were pretty preoccupied, 2) WETA Create/"How To" passed quietly away, replaced by WETA UK - because the world REALLY NEEDED more terrible class-based humor from unattractive people in suits and 3) We allowed ourselves "social" TV watching so that we wouldn't be total pariahs in our immediate friend circles. Oh, also, we decided movies in the theater don't count. What all this means in practice is that basically the only TV I watched in June was a handful of Wes Anderson movies and 1.75 viewings of Road House. Not so bad, overall.
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| Sam Eliot to the Swayze: It was worth it, friend. (image c/o TVGuide.com) |
The effects of the experiment feel kind of minimal in retrospect, possibly because the moving busy-ness really didn't allow for a lot of vegetating even if we had wanted to. I do think my brain space was slightly enhanced, and I don't think I missed anything - we don't have cable anyway and don't watch the major networks too much so it's not like we're typically seeing the kind of programming that generates water-cooler conversation. Honestly, if I lived alone I would live TV-less and just watch movies etc. on my laptop, but when I signed on with E, I signed on for at least one ginormous flat screen TV in my life for the forseeable future. And, really, sometimes it's nice to sit back and take in an episode or Antiques Roadshow or break out one of our bazillion DVDs, so, I can't complain.
In our new house, the TV is in the basement, which has made our TV consumption situation here exactly the opposite of our old apartment. There, it was right in the middle of things, like a third roommate. You know the one: the dysfunctional know-it-all whose drama is just too engaging to completely avoid but whose crazy is far too much to handle. And also who blocks the fireplace. Jerk. Here, we have to go out of our way to watch TV, to the coldest part of the house with the least amount of natural light. Even in the sweltering DC summer, that can be a hard sell for me. Who knows what winter will bring but so far the setup is helping a bit to encourage mindful TV consumption.
Lest this post veer any further into the obnoxiously judgy and self-aggradizing territory it's already well into, I should note that my problem with TV is just that: mine. There's a lot of amazing art and innovation happening out there in TV Land and believe me, come the Olympics in two weeks - and Thursday nights this fall - E and I will be on our new enormous purple couch, "Grimace," with eyes glued.
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| Could YOU resist this couch? Then you are a better person than I am. |
My issue with TV is that when it's on, I CAN'T. DO. ANYTHING. ELSE. Forming sentences becomes a problem. Knitting involves looking away from the TV, so that's out. Forget reading or writing. I am hardwired for language and drama, and once my brain has dug into whatever deeply stupid story I'm watching, it takes tremendous effort for me to refocus my attention back to, you know, the real world. The only exceptions for me are televised sports and instructional shows (cooking, gardening, woodworking - if you can describe making it, I'll watch it. How It's Made, I miss you). This is part of why losing WETA Create is such a tragedy in my tiny little media world. Those types of shows are both a) mildly educational and b) less like crack for my brain. It remains to be seen whether Fawlty Towers can fill the void but I doubt it.
So that's June. July's experiment in deprivation (seriously I am the laziest monthly-projecter ever) from social media is . . . well, I'm on Blogger right now so I probably can't say it's a success but the jury's still out. Stay tuned for a total lack of updates on the project until probably September or something.
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