I don't trust people who don't watch TV. There, I said it. I'm not talking about people who can't afford TVs, let alone Tivos and cable. I'm talking about people who have full access to such things, and yet say things like, "I just don't have time for TV." or "I'm so busy!" There's always an air of superiority about people who say such things, as if their lives are somehow better and more full because they don't have time to watch the "idiotbox". It's like sneering, "I'm too good for the mass entertainment that you plebian losers partake in."
Let's get this out there: TV is bad. The hours are filled with crappy reality shows in which contestants eat cockroaches and try to find the love of their life in front of cameras. You could fill every single day, every single hour with worthless programming with shows that have the words fear or date in the title, or alternatively, every single show that MTV produces. It could be a long bleak day.
But by the same token, you could fill every day, all day with good TV. Leaving aside network television for the moment, PBS and the History Channel seemingly exist to educate people. Reality shows on PBS are actually interesting; they take a nice American family and plunk them in the middle of colonial times and see what happens. Or Victorian times. You get the idea. No one eats a cockroach, no one is looking for true love, and the most trying thing that usually happens is the struggle to live without electricity. I'm not ashamed to admit that I love educational TV, and that sometimes Frontline is appointment TV for me. And then there's all that programming that might not be educational, but has some value. Like shows that make you laugh out loud. Shows that make you feel happy inside. All those things are on TV too.
Of course, there are Americans that make bad choices, and let TV take over for them. They don't read books, they don't go out and experience things, they let it run their lives. I'm sure those people exist. But it's perfectly possible to read two to three books a week, go out to dinner with friends three times a week, spend quality time with your significant other, do the groceries, the laundry and the cleaning and still watch a good amount of TV. I'm not going to be silly and say something about how it's all about balance, but duh, it's all about balance. It's not going to make you a more stupid person if you don't let it.
So don't say to me with that virtuous tone in your voice that YOU just don't have the TIME for tv. Don't tell me that you're so BUSY and sigh and say something about how it doesn't really matter because it's all crap anyway. Unfortunately for you, if you do that, I'll probably look at you like you have two heads and tell you to try again some other time, because right now I don't have the TIME for you and I'm so BUSY and then I'll sigh and say something about how it doesn't matter anyway. Because you know, I just don't trust you if you don't watch TV.
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