Life is your Career

Novocaine our brains, and we’re out like lights
            –Video by Ben Folds Five

There are many addicts out there. Most people I know in fact are addicted to something. And just because something is legal doesn’t make it any less addictive (or destructive). Just like you can be addicted to alcohol, or drugs, you can be addicted to many others things. Like relationships. Like power. Like video games. And one of the most damaging addictions that isn’t recognized: television.

#5 Body Image

We’ll start this list with a standard one. TV gives us an unrealistic view on what we should look like. The vast majority of people are not thin and beautiful. The men aren’t all muscular, tall, dark, and handsome. The women aren’t all tall, blond, with flowing golden hair. We can all make efforts to get into better shape, but television’s portrayal of the “average person” leads to lower self-esteem for many people.

In addition to the feeling of not being beautiful enough, there is the idea of having to conform to a certain style. What color is in? What type of shoe does Brad Pitt wear? How should I cut my hair? Be yourself… if you like it then do it and don’t worry about what the celebrities are doing.

#4 Degradation of humanity

There is now a show about hooking people up to a polygraph and attempting to make them confess horrible truths about cheating or being willing to murder puppies or some such things (I don’t know exactly as I refuse to watch it on principal). Shows based around the idea of who is sleeping with who, shows based around the lives of celebrities, shows based around people debasing themselves for 5 minutes of television fame. Television captures humanity at it’s lowest and inflicts it upon its viewers and labels it “entertainment”.

#3 Missing out on real life

One of the saddest phrases I hear people tell me is, “I have to be home by 8 o’clock so I don’t miss the new Survivor episode.” Planning you’re life around television is a sad commentary on the fact that some people lead lives so uneventful that they would take fiction over actual experiences. Television is used as an escape from real life. Forget about the job you hate. Forget about your unhappy relationship. Just forget. Sounds like the same reason people drink and do cocaine to me…

#2 Everything will work itself out in the end

All problems will be solved in 30 minutes (less time for commercial breaks). I hear this all the time when people are talking about their issues. They say, “Don’t worry. It’ll work itself out in the end.” No… it won’t. Things don’t get better on their own. That’s strictly an occurrence in television. In the real world we have to make an effort to fix things, and the bigger the problem the harder we have to work. Television gives us the idea that there is a pre-programmed destiny and the fundamental way things end up will be positive. This is stupid, and it is wrong. There is no slant towards good, nor any slant towards bad. What you get out of life is what you’re willing to make the effort to take of it. TV teaches people to abdicate responsibility for their own lives.

#1 Unrealistic expectations

In the movie Fight Club there is a quote that says, “We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’ll all be millionaires or movie gods or rock stars… but we won’t. And we’re slowing learning that fact. And we’re very very pissed off”. It’s hard to say it any better than that. Life isn’t perfect and the good things aren’t free. They have to be earned. The people who sat back and waited for the happy times end up being the angry disillusioned ones when they realize that the opportunities they needed to make have passed by. Television gives us a false sense of what life is like and that is the single most damaging thing about it.

Tomorrow I’ll write part 2 of this segment on television and discuss the process of breaking the addiction. What do you think are some of reasons to give up watching TV?

Tags: change, Lifestyle, personal development, Television

This entry was posted on Monday, February 25th, 2008 at 3:12 pm and is filed under Lifestyle, change. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.