Throw Away Your Television

The song from Red Hot Chili Peppers with the same title as this post is stuck in my head. "Throw away your television ... Take the noose off your ambition ... Reinvent your intuition now... Oy! Oy! Oy!" Anyway, on to the topic at hand.

Before I came to the seminary I wasted a lot of time watching television. A lot. And by “wasted,” I mean I was not being entertained. In fact, I was just shutting off my brain and avoiding the work of thinking about serious things in my life: the building of friendships and the challenges that entails, the pursuit of true happiness, and perhaps most important of all, t.v. helped me ignore the fact that I was uninformed about holy things, particularly God Himself. But now with little space for a television in my 10-by-10 room, I watch very little television. Surprisingly, it didn't take long after television was removed from my life before the withdrawal symptoms subsided and I discovered the gift of additional hours in my day.

Before, after a day at the office, I would be tired. So I would click on the television and my brain would shut down. The trouble is, when I would turn off the t.v. I would not feel refreshed. What good is recreation if it doesn’t leave one feeling refreshed and renewed – in a sense, re-created? When I used to turn off the t.v. at the end of the night, invariably I had watched it longer than I should have. My eyes would be heavy, my head maybe even aching, as I lumbered off to bed far too late to get enough sleep before work the next day. Was it worth it to watch reruns of Seinfeld? Am I better off for it? Not in that case.

Seminary forced me to turn off the t.v., and I did not mind the lack of the distraction. I really don’t have time to watch it, first of all. And second of all, without television I find myself re-creating in more meaningful ways that actually do leave me feeling more refreshed. Maybe I take a nap when I’m tired instead of vegging out in front of the t.v. Or maybe I go for a walk, do some leisure/spiritual reading, write in my blog, visit with my neighbors and friends, call Grandma, or go converse to God in prayer. Those activities generally leave me at least relaxed and at best ready and energetic to tackle the next pile of work.

All of this comes to my mind today because my favorite t.v. show, Lost, is back on the air. You may recall how I became a Lost addict back in 2006. I’m not opposed to watching television, so long as it’s done for true recreational purposes. I enjoy Lost, so I watch it. In previous seasons I downloaded the show from iTunes. But this year, I decided to spend my money on a t.v. tuner for my computer instead of handing cash over to iTunes. That way, I rationalized, I can record the season, and anything else I want, without additional cost, and I avoid hogging the limited seminary bandwidth. It seems like a practical purchase.

But once I got the t.v. tuner hooked up, and was able to watch 11 High Definition over-the-air channels (4 of which are PBS) in my room on my computer, I had a strange feeling. My room felt different. There was a new intrusion of the world into my little private habitat. I became concerned that I would start watching t.v. more, that I would revert to my mindless couch potato status whenever I was tired in the evening.

A few times since I purchased this device I have turned it on and tried to watch some television. But I realized that I have lost the taste for it. The commercials are so abundant that it is not worthwhile (unless you can fast forward through them) and so much of what is aired is junk. Additionally, many of the shows are designed for those who suffer from ADD. Just watch any news channel. A while back, I turned on the t.v. and saw the screen divided into four quadrants, with four different people talking simultaneously, one in each quadrant. And as if four people simultaneously yelling at one another did not provide enough to hold my attention, text scrolled continuously across the bottom of the screen, occasionally grabbing my eyes and dragging them slowly from left to right across the screen. Graphics were incessantly moving, flashing across the screen with intense words like “CRISIS!” and “BREAKING NEWS!” but, oddly, they were not discussing much of anything important. As I watched, my brain started to become overloaded and I felt uncomfortable. Then a commercial break came on and I was screamed at by a homemaker who was extremely happy with her new brand of paper towels. It was too much. I turned it off.

The same thing happens each time I try to watch t.v. in my room. It’s not worth it. If there’s a show I like, I might record it. But channel-surfing to unwind just doesn’t work for me. If anything, t.v. makes me more nervous and tired.

Stop watching t.v. for a while. By "a while" I mean a month or two - maybe give it up entirely for Lent. Then turn it on, and you’ll be amazed at how absurd it seems. Now that I've said all that, I should mention that I have the newest episode of Lost waiting for me on my desktop. I'm looking forward to checking it out tonight, after all my work is done for the day.

-Jason