Why I don’t watch TV

– It steals your attention, if you’re a visual like me its hard to avoid its hypnotising projections.

– Its full of mind-numbing crap ! – So many ‘shows’ where all they do Is compare fat people, compare pretty people, tell you why you need more stuff in your house, or a bigger house for more stuff.

– They make shows for stupid people or those with memory loss. It seems 80% is repeating what they’ve told you, and only 20% ‘content’

– You’ve seen it all before. How many Channel+1’s can there be. All you need do is wait an hour and you can see the repeated crap all over again.

– Its depressing. It seems bad news is news, and good news is bad.

At home I pass the lounge and as a visual person linger at the doorway which is as irritating for me, as it is for the person on the sofa. I find myself just staring at this box of colour.

– Hours can disappear as you get sucked into programmes you’d never meant to watch.

– The series starts and you record the next and the next, you can’t miss one. Then when you do, you lose all interest and it doesn’t seem anywhere near as important as it once did.

My pet hate are the programmes for the forgetful.

– Here’s what just happened.

– Here’s whats going to happen after the break

– Here’s the thing we started with.

– Commercial Break

– Here’s what we told you just before the break

– Here’s what we’re going to tell you next

– Did we mention the original thing, just in case you forgot, its only been 30 seconds !

– Shall we get on with the content now, or did you forget ? Do we need to tell you again ?

Generally the themes are:

– This person is fat, they need to be thin

– This persons house/room/business is terrible, lets fix it for them

– These people have been invited for dinner and don’t like your cooking, or you, or anyone or anything else but themselves

– Lets stereotype a section of society we don’t really know about, then ask why they do stuff, and then compare them to ourselves.

Its such a shame, what could, and to some small extent has been, a marvellous communication channel has been turned into a series of attention-grabbing quick-hit crap all vying for our attention. Drowning the wonders of superb content such as The Olympics, the News and history in the making, the changing lives of nations and individuals, the plight of people, of the world, the resilience of nature and of acts of human kindness.

Then there are adverts, don’t get me started. How you need this, or need that, your friends will love you if you buy this, to keep up with the Jones’ you must have one of those, to stay thin eat this. For everything else, there’s a mastercard, or a visa, or a payday loan, or interest free credit.

Go on, turn it off, for a few minutes, for an hour. For a day.

Failing that don’t turn it on, or just watch the one programme or film and then turn it off again.

Will you miss the fat people, the thin people, the stuff you’ll never buy, the debt you’ll not need ?

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