Well, this is my first official day of trying to eliminate TV from my life. I guess my short term goal is just to watch MUCH less TV so the withdrawal isn't so intense. We'll see how it goes... As I mentioned before, this has been attempted before and I was doing so well. I think I went without the idiot box for almost 1 month. But the sexy allure of the boob tube finally got the best of me and I went right back at it.
Since today is an Ozone Action Day here in Toledo, I'm not supposed to mow the lawn or anything else that could further damage our atmosphere. That's going to make it a little more difficult to avoid the TV because I'll have to find other things to occupy my time. Writing in my blog is a good choice! :-)
A little background might be helpful to put everything in perspective... We've been in our new home now for a little more than 6 months. As you enter the front door and walk down a short hallway, you enter the kitchen. Immediately to your right is a sunken family room with the TV at the far end facing the kitchen. There is a half wall separating the kitchen from the family room and, of course, our table is right next to the half wall. So, while sitting at the table to eat, it's impossible to avoid hearing the TV and almost impossible to avoid looking at it. We also have a finished basement where the two kids hang out and they have a TV, video games, and a computer down there. They don't watch TV as much as we do, but they're almost always on the computer and/or playing a game.
Now, my wife has always been a hard-core TV addict, and has no desire at all to quit, which is one of the reasons I tried to quit before. She is completely hooked on news and a whole variety of other shows ranging from soaps operas, to talk shows (such as Oprah), to late night dramas like Law and Order. I myself enjoy educational shows like whatever might be on the Discovery channel, home improvement shows, Myth Busters, and stuff like that. Her and I together have a few favorite shows we hate to miss such as American Idol, ALIAS, and House. Thank God the first two have ended for the season!
Since we moved to the new house, I've slipped right back into my old habits right along with her. I come home from work, eat dinner in front of the tube, maybe go out and do a little yard work, check my email, and then plop myself down in front of the TV again for the remainder of the evening. I don't even really care what's on... I'll lay on the floor or couch and channel surf until I fall asleep. Sometimes I'll even wake up in the middle of the night and channel surf some more. My wife and I sleep in the family room almost every night - which of course results in sore backs and/or headaches in the morning. Once in a while, when I feel really guilty, I'll get up around 3am and drag myself upstairs to spend the last few hours in my comfy bed before I'd have to go to work again.
To say the least, my life has been a sad situation for too long. In all honesty, I'd have to say I spend an average of 6 or 7 hours per night watching TV. And my wife watches more than that because she gets home earlier than I do and watchers her soaps, Oprah, and by the time I get home (5:30ish) she's already watching news on the Fox news channel. Do you have any idea how much 7 hours per day really is? If you do the math, it comes out to a full 106 24-hour days per year! That's pretty much 1/3 of my life being spent mindlessly watching other people live their lives -- and they aren't even living real lives. It's all made up crap, or commercials designed to separate me from my money! Oh my...this is much worse than I thought!
Can you say BIG TIME TV ADDICTS! I just asked Michele yesterday if she thought she could give up the TV for 1 week, and she said NO WAY because she thought she would go crazy! I just have too many dreams, goals, and things I want to do in life, but apparently those desires aren't strong enough to pull me away from the mind-drizzle playing on TV every night. I've also discovered that watching too much TV can (and does) create strong feelings of depression, apathy, and a total lack of physical energy and enthusiasm. I'm not just making this up either. Not only have I read a TON of information in support of this, but I experience it myself.
This has been a pretty long post, but I wanted to lay down a little foundation as a starting point to this journey. I hope it is a successful one, and I sincerely hope I can take a few people with me as I learn to watch less and live more!
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