Friday, July 21, 2006

Addicted to Television



Back in the early 60's I remember watching television in black and white, with only seven channels to choose from. The only big day for television was Saturday mornings, because of all the cartoons, like Heckle and Jeckle, Bugs Bunny, and Quick Draw McGraw.

In 1962 we bought our first color television, and what a treat it was to watch movies and cartoons in color. Yet, there was still only seven channels of programming to opt from. So as a child, I spent most of my time outdoors, doing what children do, playing with my friends or riding my Stingray bicycle around the neighborhood.

News stories regarding how today's children are overweight from sitting in front of television all day comes as no surprise, with the Dish Network and cable, children have hundreds of channels to pick from. So there is always a cartoon to watch from the Cartoon Network or some far away city twenty-four seven. Not good.

Last year I decided it was time to put a stop to this addiction of mine, watching television! I gave my VCR to my son Bryan, and two boxes full of movies, so I would not be tempted to sit in front of my television. Last week I took it one step further, I gave my DVD player and television in my bedroom to my son Nathan.

I have to admit, it took me over nine months to part with my bedroom television.

This past week entering my bedroom had an odd feel to it, just because my television was absent. It was like I lost a good friend to death.

Last week Nielsen reported that it was the slowest week in television history for the four major networks. Appears many viewers are doing something other than sitting behind the boob tube.

Are you addicted to television? Measure how long your television stays off to see how deeply hooked you are, if your able to leave it off for more than a few hours.

Now to figure out how to stay off the Internet?

Peace,

Eddie

1 comment:

Kanani said...

I got rid of cable earlier this year. It was a $55 bill that I just didn't want to deal with every month.

So we have the basic caable package, which gives us only the basics for about $12/ month.

Funny thing, new stations keep cropping up. Last night before watching "24," we flipped over to something called the "i" channel.

From what I could tell, it's for white, aging evangelical Christins. The movie was "The Sunshine Boys" which is an excerise in yelling an repeating lines by Walther Matthau and George Burns. The commercials that came on were for disability, AARP insurance, constipation, Depends, diabetes and fat.

It was so depressing, we were grateful when we flipped back over to FOX and found Jack Bauer with his gun drawn.