Since January I have been living happy without owning a television. Recently due to my new roommate, I now have a TV in my home, but NO cable, and I plan to keep it that way. I personally do not enjoy watching TV, for the most part because I find myself wasting about an hour just flipping through channels to find something to watch.
When my now fiancee and I first started dating he would come over to cook me dinner, and since I had no filler background IE: radio or TV, we would have to find our own things to do to entertain ourselves. One day we pulled out my French book, and practiced speaking this beautiful language. Its one of my favorite memories, and I have to say I don't think it would have happened if I had a TV to watch.
I noticed how much I would get done at my house when I had no television to distract me. I read and wrote more, I do yoga and meditate more, I run out to the park for longer walks, sometimes I take two to three walks a day. My mind feels clearer and fresher without the infiltrating of mass programming into my brain.
Recently I was in a families home, where there was no Television in the living room. I was so impressed I began to probe the mother about her reasoning behind this. She went on to tell me that her children get along better when they do not watch TV. In fact their kids are aware of it, and agree not to watch TV. She told me that when they are allowed to entertain themselves with the Tube, somehow it brings out the worst in them, and they bicker and fight. Other families have confessed the same thing to her, and find life to be more peaceful without it. This conversation grabbed my attention, and brought into focus how I have been feeling without television in my life. Peaceful- would be the key word. When I spend too much of my precious time surfing channels I feel drained, tired, and unmotivated.
When I was kid we had one of those ancient television's with three channels to watch, and I remember getting to pick one program a week to view. Looking back I am so thankful for this, because most of my time was spent in my parents back yard building tree houses and forts with my brothers. I think about kids today, who have TV, computers, phones, and the list goes on and on, and wonder how can their imagination's grow and flourish, with all these modern day technologies feeding it to them.
So I am encouraging anyone to spend a few days TV free, and see how you feel.
I bet you will get so much done and feel so much healthier without it.
Alexandra :)
