It’s been almost two months since I’ve had a TV. The oddest effect that it’s had is that I don’t spend as much time thinking about the things I saw on TV. An October that precedes an election is filled with opinions, fears, and encouragements that, in turn, fill up our minds, occupy our thoughts, and emerge in our conversations.
It all misses me. During the day, I feel like someone who doesn’t watch sports listening to people who do. A stranger in a suddenly strange land.
An hour or so on the internet gives far more information than a day of watching TV, and one easily avoids the repetition that repeats and reinforces the same point of view over and over again. On the internet, one can easily click forward when bored, and it’s amazing how little time it takes to get all the information that’s important. We learn, by being TVless, that most TV is the endless repetition of a surprisingly small number of actual facts.
TV is almost like a slow-motion movie. Since the blurbs come at us slowly, and over and over again, it’s impossible to keep the ability to think as independently alive after our minds have been filled with opinions that are carefully crafted by experts to exert as much influence as possible on our own thoughts about what’s going on.
Listening to people talk about TV, or repeat opinions that they’ve absorbed from it, helps one sense what a powerful tool it is in shaping thoughts, words, and feelings about things. In fact, one can tell if a person has been watching TV, and what channels, just by listening to what they say.
