Tv or Not Tv: Is It Even a Question?

Dylan Lee

11/28/2007

Bob Ellis

TV or Not TV:

Is It Even a Question?

After completing my first week of college in August of 2007, one thing had become clear to me: I really do not like teenagers. Nothing about them. Their lifestyles, the way they dress, the way they trash dorms, their goals, or lack thereof, the music they listen to, the list could go on for days. Upon looking further, or maybe because of the simple fact that I have been forced to live with a few, one commonality I have found in teenage lives is television. They watch it for hours upon hours a day, taking breaks only to eat, sleep, or maybe pop in a video game. This television, I have deduced, is the main source of inspiration for many of the undesirable traits most of them take on at this point of their lives. This conclusion is derived from the fact that none of them read, aside from gossip magazines, and if one is inspired by a fellow teen, that boy or girl is probably dressing or acting like her favorite character on MTV's The HIlls. In response to this, or maybe even in an attempt to stray from these teenager-isms, I have cut TV out of my life almost entirely since that first week. Although there are a few other reasons I have stopped watching, the effect it has on popular teenage lifestyles is very much the main one, and I plan to keep it up as long as teens are buying $200 dollar jeans and listening to Nickelback.

The problem of teens watching too much TV , however, is somewhat understandable when one considers the fact that the average American household has more TV's than people, and almost as many computers (usatoday.com). The teens in these houses spend more time watching TV (1500 hours) than they do in school (1100 hours) (uihealthcare.com). But this is no excuse for the dependency they have developed, and all are missing out on the many advantages a non-TV life can offer.

Once I pulled the plug on the idiot-box, I immediately began to appreciate the peaceful life I began to lead without the distraction of the television. I began to read the paper regularly, where I receive valuable information that is nowhere to be found on any channel, and I have found it much easier to find time for friends and doing schoolwork. I also have found that going through an entire day without once having an advertisement forced on me, as commercials so often do, is something that everyone should experience on a regular basis. My attention span has greatly increased, and I have immensely benefitted from the free time I have had to collect my thoughts on what I should do next, or who I should call, or how I can work out any problem I am having properly. My perspective on what is cool or what I should be doing is not governed by my favorite TV star, and without television in my life anymore, and with the addition of public radio, newspapers, and the occasional magazine, I am able to make well-informed opinions and decisions about pressing political and socials issues that most other teens know nothing about.

The amount of televisions today's teens are watching, with some aid from the radio and internet, is also contributing