There’s a war on your attention, and television is winning. Television is the most commonly performed past-time activity of the world. There are more people watching television in their free time than any other activity. Television has taken over the human culture and has created the habit of watching tv as a ritual. This ritual, while may seem harmless, is the reason why you are wasting your life.
Television has many problems and many benefits. Let’s talk about the benefits first. Television allows you to unload your mind into the process of watching. You stop thinking, you stop moving, you stop doing everything to watch television. When you stop, you are stopping because television has a powerful impact on your psychology. You stop paying attention to the inside, and you start paying attention to the outside, as presented by a medium.
Benefits of television are vast, everything from learning to killing time, there are too many to count. While it is important to understand these benefits, it is more important to undertstand the problems associated with television.
Let’s say you have one hour of your time to spend how you wish. Let’s say that you have a few options to explore. One will be to watch television, the other, to not. If you are to engage in watching TV, you will quickly find that the hour is filled. You will not even notice it go by. This hour will go by and you will sit there silently when it does. On the other hard, if you use the time to develop yourself, to reflect on your life, to become a better person, you will notice that the hour will feel a lot different.
By choosing not to watch TV, you will gain control of your time. Why is TV so bad for you? It requires little skill and challenge. You are literally dumb while watching tv, and you emerge just as dumb. In contrast that to the act of learning a new skill. When you learn something new, you become a better version of yourself. You emerge as a better person. One hour later, you will have moved your life in a positive direction.
Let’s say you are watching TV to tune out. This process is actually very pad for you. You are basically numbing yourself because you believe that by not thinking about your life’s problems you are better off. And what better medium than that of watching television. You are simply deluding yourself. You will not solve your problems, not will you give them enough time to think through. You are simply creating a negative cycle of escaping from your thoughts.
If you watch TV to escape, you need to re-evaluate your life. What are you escaping from? Stress from work? Do you think that 60 minutes spent on watching TV will give you the stress relief you want? Maybe. Let’s consider other activities. Spending just five minutes exercising will relieve more stress than watching 60 minutes of TV. Spending a couple of minutes listening to your favourite song will give you many hours of relaxed state of being. Spending a couple of minutes listening to your girlfriend, boyfriend will give you a sense of fulfillment.
If you are escaping your life through television, how else are you escaping from reality? Are you using drugs to fill a void inside you? Are you neglecting something because it is too painful? These are all forms of escape. The most deadly form of denial for anyone to experience.
If you realize that you are in control of your life, then you must realize that you have control of how you choose to spend your time. If you truly believe that watching tv allows you to become a better person, then it is up to you to choose so. But if you realize that watching tv is detrimental to the progress of you, that you do not gain any long term growth, then it is also up to you to decide.
Is it possible to watch too much tv? Most people spend hours of watching tv each day. If you are to reduce this account to a fraction, you will gain great awareness to how wasteful your life used to be. You will realize that you are living on earth with a countdown, and it is ticking until your death. One day you will die, and it is this realization that must propel you to reflect on your television watching habit. One day, every show you have ever watched or movie you have sat through will amount to nothing on your deathbed.
You are simply a creature of habit. That’s okay. But it’s time to wake up. It’s time to take control. It’s time to minimize the amount of time spend passively watching a flickering screen. It is time to become empowered through your own habits.
You are better than you give yourself credit. If you think that television controls your life, you are wrong. You are in control. You give control to that which is on your mind. If television is on your mind, then you are giving away your control.
Is it possible to watch television and progress your life? Yes, but only when it is used in a learning matter. You can watch television to learn. But outside of learning, it fails at providing enough challenge for you to find it’s use worthwhile.
You must limit your watching habits. You must learn that the act of watching means you are consuming. You are consuming your time. You are consuming your opportunity cost to do something else. Something more meaningful in your life. You are wasting your chance to take control of your life.
Most people are burdened by their jobs, by their lives, by their partner. Most people do not know how to properly take care of themselves. Most people are simply moving through life like zombies. But you don’t have to. You can take action towards the attainment of the life you want. You can gain awareness towards your own habits.
Television creates a negative state. After watching television, you do not want to do anything else. You feel neutral. You feel dis-energized, unmotivated. You feel weak. You have stopped yourself just to watch a passive activity. Now you are paying for it.
Most people do not realize that there’s another way to live. Most people do not realize that there’s better way to spend their time. The better way is to be learning. If you go home and all you have, outside of your family or social duties, is one hour of free time, you should use the time to learn, to grow yourself, to become a better person. If you are not, you are wasting your life.
Television can be relaxing, but it is also apathetic. You are simply dumb-founded when you watch television. If most people use television to receive relaxation, there are far better ways to relax.
If most people use television to consume entertainment, they are deluding themselves in thinking that they life is better than where it was. They are deluding themselves in thinking they will succeed. The only thing they will succeed at is watching more television. The only thing they will become better at is picking shows, discussing their favourite movie lines.
It is a wasteful activity, knowing there are far better alternatives. These alternatives are far cheaper, take less time, and yield superior results. Want to relax? Practice 10 minutes of meditation. Want to be entertained? Listen to your favourite song. Want to tune out? Watch your favourite movie for the next two hours. This latter does not come with a warning.