TV

On my way to the train I was talking with a co-worker about my
relationship with TV. It is well established that most TV is not good
brain food (even most of PBS and discovery channel is like faux health
food: you're still better off reading a book or having a discussion.)
If you are only trying to lead an intellectually stimulating life, I
can think of no need to have a TV, and it might only be used for art
films or other such, if it did come in the house.

However, most of us, even me, aren't solely interested in intellectual
stimulation. Sometimes we feel a need to turn off our overly active
brains, sometimes we want to relax, utterly and completely, without
anything mentally taxing. TV provides a way to do this. I've got two
problems.

First, I'm not convinced this is necessary at all, maybe reading,
relaxing in a sauna, whatever, is better for us than TV. Maybe TV is a
crutch that doesn't really help us do what we want it to: help us
relax. Maybe it eats up more time than it gives back. I feel like the
idea would be no TV. Go out work, play, whatever. Then come home and
relax by sitting in a chair by a fire and reading, or napping, or
taking a bath. One might be better off if that were one's life. But
I'll conceded this point and let TV in my door. Let's say that I
recognize that TV has some value as a relaxation aid. How to manage
it? This leads to...

Problem 2: Once you let TV in, it starts taking over. It's
addictive. One way it does this is by scheduling your life for you.
You find things you want to watch and now you're tied to its schedule,
rather than your own. This problem has been eliminated recently (for
me and many others) by TiVo. You own your time again, and the TV
doesn't control your schedule. It is _great_ for this. And has
improved my life a lot, since I no longer worry about scheduling my TV
times to watch what I want.

However, scheduling is just one way that TV inculcates itself into your
life. Once you get in the habit of watching, it's hard to stop. You
get addicted. TiVo doesn't stop that, it feeds it. TV is addictive
because even though the product is pretty junky, the fix is so cheap
that you can't help but do it. TiVo makes the fix even cheaper. I.e.
no annoying ads, you watch whatever you want starting when you want to
start it, and you can fit it around your life. Sounds good, and it
is, but it means you don't have to think, just plop your growing ass in
front of the TiVo and you get mildly entertaining drivel, and the
drivel starts and stops when you want it to. It's still drivel
though. Drivel may be helpful in small doses as a soporific, or
something similar, but what if all you ever do is come home and turn on
the drivel box? Addiction.

I'm in the midst of thinking about upgrading my cable service, so that
I can obtain a higher-quality of drivel. Specifically this revolves
around getting soccer drivel that I might watch instead of basketball
drivel and football drivel. Sports drivel seems to be a speciality of
mine, and like 24 and other addictions, it seems to work by "if you
don't watch the first one, the second one is less fun to watch." I
have to keep up with the regular season so that I know what is going on
in the playoffs, etc. I don't really even have any teams I get behind,
I just watch sports. Often it's a way to relax on a weekend, but
it's more than that too, and why can't I relax by reading a good book?

Do we (Americans) watch TV because there is nothing better in our
culture, or do we have nothing better in our culture, because we watch
TV. Does that apply to me? Will the increase in choices coming due to
TiVos, iTunes video, and the obvious extensions, mean that we watch
less? Or more?