Television Maiming

Everywhere I turn.  Everywhere I didn't turn.  At home.  In the car.  At work. Outdoors.  Indoors.  NO doors. . .

Technology is making noise, demanding attention, and not letting up until past my bedtime.

For me that includes: my TV, my personal cell phone, my TV, my company cell phone, my TV,  my Macbook, my TV, my IMac, my TV, my Ipod for home, my TV,  my Ipod for the car, my TV, my company's laptop, my TV, my stereo, my TV, my dvd player,  my TV, my cd player, my TV,  my Ipad, my TV, my TV and my TV.

So yeah.  I kind of killed my television.  It’s more like I  maimed it.  

I still have it. It still functions.  It’s just in a much more abbreviated version. 

I graduated from cartoons as a child; to sitcoms with laugh tracks as an adolescent; to TV dramas, news shows, and Oprah as a teenager;  to a mindless mass of noise as an adult!

Often the TV was on just to be on.  I don’t know if it’s addiction, habit, comfort or what.  Television has always been part of my existence.  

I know folks who don’t have television.  I’ve always felt very sorry for them. They will go to their graves not knowing who Kim Kardashian is.  

My idol, Madonna, doesn’t watch TV.  It’s Madonna.  It’s OK. 

But when I found out Madonna won’t even let her kids watch TV! . . well I felt that was blatant child abuse!  Luckily for Madonna, I couldn’t quite bring myself to call social services. 

In fact, just the idea of my life existing without television sounded downright painful!

But somehow, four weeks later, here I am existing without television. And to my pleasant surprise, it has been a pain free existence. 

I did rush to watch the Grammy’s last week only to discover the Directv folks had already processed my request to cancel the service.  But it was no biggie. 

Although,  don’t get me wrong, I’m no martyr.

I didn’t want to stop TV cold turkey and endure crippling withdrawal symptoms.  I could see me breaking in homes to watch one more episode of “Real Housewives of Atlanta”.

There was some weaning involved.  In the past few weeks I’ve watched one Saturday morning half hour sitcom,  and the Super Bowl’s commercials and half-time show.

But that’s it.

And I’ve allowed myself to watch movies.  But absolutely no channel surfing is allowed! If the television is on, it must be on for the specific purpose of watching a specific movie. 

The TV is to serve me.  Not vice versa.

There have been some recent discoveries as a direct result of no TV.  The first thing I discovered was silence.  Shortly thereafter, I discovered ‘hidden’ sounds.  For example,  I had no idea my wall clock actually made a little ‘tick tock’ noise as the second hand moved!   The TV was always ‘hiding’ it with its own sound.

Additionally, the sofa has zero laundry on it.  The kitchen doesn’t require a HAZMAT suit.  Magazines and books are getting read. Clutter is contained.  And projects have been dreamed up and/or tackled or completed.

In other words:  Things are getting done. 

Of course, I’m not perfect nor ENTIRELY crazy.  I’m keeping the Ipad!

But if I can conquer my television addiction, I’m confident my ‘Angry Birds’ and ‘Fruit Ninja’ addictions can be addressed and conquered as well. 

Meanwhile . . .

Baby steps!  ;-)