Television : chewing gum for the eyes?
So said Frank Lloyd Wright. Pioneer Press recently asked readers to tell which tv shows they follow religiously every week.
Which got me thinking. I watch very little tv but don’t particularly “boast” about it (if that’s the right word? it seems that there is a snobbishness about television, certainly in Europe and people do proudly announce that they watch little or no televsion). Especially the soaps and the reality tv shows. But I confess that I don’t watch much tv because I know that I could so easily become addicted to shows such as Eastenders, Oprah Winfrey, Changing Rooms, et al. I’m terrified that a trickle could become a flood. And then I’d have no time for alternatives such as blogging.
But really, isn’t blogging a more interactive version of following a soap? When I go and read Zoe’s wonderful posts about her life with the twat and the kids, isn’t this just the same as following the fictional fortunes of Kat Slater or Ruth Archer? But with comments?
We are lucky enough to be able to afford a Sky subscription. The motivation to subscribe in the first place was to watch international rugby games, in the days when the BBC had lost the rights to show any game of interest. That has changed now, but I think only Sky has the right to broadcast England games (or maybe games played at Twickenham? I’ll find out). So we keep it because my partner is a keen rugby fan and very interested in archaeology and paleontology - there are many fascinating documentaries on Discovery, National Geographic and so on.
But if I’m left alone with the remote control you can bet your bottom dollar that I’ll find myself flicking to the “tat corner” - reruns of Montel Williams and Trading Up.
So there you go. I’m not a tv addict. I’m a blogadict.
If you had to limit your tv viewing to an hour a week, what show would you watch? Do you even own a tv? Do tell.
