I recently got rid of my television, and wanted to report back on my second week without TV.
Nights have been very different. Much quieter. Earlier bedtimes. More talking with friends on the phone. Journaling and reading. Music. Lots of music.
I’ve certainly been alone with my thoughts, which is both good and bad. I’ve certainly been bored at times. But I’m not really sitting mindlessly in front of the boob toob, and that’s pretty good.
I think I got lost for a while in television. I felt kind of like those people in Orwell’s 1984 who were mesmerized and stuck in lala land. Now that I am unaddicted by choice, I have to admit it is very hard. The boredom is the worst part, but then when I think about balancing it against the time wasted watching TV a month ago its hard to justify going back to the other direction.
So I know many are thinking, moderation, Josh, moderation. Well the problem is that TV sucks me (and a lot of us) in. It’s a modern drug and just as addictive as alcohol. I don’t know many people who self moderate TV well, and don’t really count myself as one of them, either.
I’m not going to advocate getting rid of your television. But I will challenge you to take it downstairs and put it in storage for a month and see how it changes your life. Changing our routine is good for us to at least identify those areas of our life that we might want to consider modifying. A one month hiatus, isn’t going to impact you all that negatively, and you might just find that there are some real positives that come from it. So try it, you might like it!