I’ve mentioned on and off that I don’t watch TV, and people have curiously asked me why I do that and how I manage life without TV. Firstly, its not air, water or food that we cannot live without; its just a piece of electronic. Anyway, I thought it’s about time I write an article on it. In the past, I was a regular TV viewer like most people. I wasn’t a TV addict or a couch potato, but I would watch TV whenever I feel like it. That probably averaged out to a few hours a day.  Then slowly, I watched lesser and lesser TV. It wasn’t that I just woke up one day and decided that “This is it – I’m not going to watch TV from today onwards“. It was more of a gradual transition to a TV-free life. And truth be told, my life didn’t crash from not watching TV. Looking back, I don’t feel like I have missed out on anything. In fact, I feel my life has changed for the better. In the past years of not watching TV, I have experienced numerous positive changes, such as increased consciousness, more clarity, more time to do what I want, productivity, freedom, and so on.
Not watching TV has given me a lot more free time to do things I love. I remember in the past, I’d mark out shows I want to watch on my schedule. Then I’d arrange my activities around them. While I was watching the shows, other activities had to be put on hold. We didn’t count, but one probably spends at least 2-3 hours/day in front of the telly, if not more. That’s quite a bit of time spent in front of the black box and doing nothing else. In retrospect, that was a big waste of evenings.

Movies

The one thing I noticed about TV is how it gives you an illusion that you’re missing out from not watching. The TV trailers would go “This Saturday is Blockbuster Saturday– Be sure to catch Movie #1, Movie #2, Movie #3, back to back! You CANNOT miss this!” Or “This holiday season, all the best movies are coming home to you! You won’t want to miss this for anything!“. They just keep going on and on, and once you are done for the week, new trailers will run. Also, you don’t ever accomplish anything from watching TV. Yes it helps me to relax and chill out at first, but after a certain amount of time one feels more sluggish and tired from watching. Then at the end of it, there’s no specific output. You’ve gained nothing and done nothing.

Drama Serials

Many of us watch TV, specifically drama serials, because we want to see the stories unfold for the characters. What’s going to happen to X? Did Y get the outcome he/she deserves? Will A and B get together? What will the ending be? It’s all very exciting, and the cliff hangers keep us yearning for more. Then for the whole week, we wait excitedly for the next episode to see what happens. We have our own life to live and problems to solve. Even if one says that he/she doesn’t get affected by TV serials, watching them automatically gets you involved in them and it definitely affects you sub-consciously in your emotional and thinking patterns.

Reality Shows

Even for reality shows, the genre of reality TV was interesting when it first started, but after some point it became over done. After a while it seemed like network producers were just doing one reality show after the next, creating different spin offs which barely last. I’ve lost count of the number of singing competitions and sequels in the country. There is merit for a singing competition, but after a while it seems more like the TV producers are more interested in having successful talent shows than discovering talent.

News Channels

There is a lot of sensationalization on TV. Sometimes it’s the sensationalization of what’s there, making it bigger than it really is. Other times, it’s something created out of nothing. A lot of things are hyped up. Scenes of people crying, bickering, fighting, taboo, sexual content, ugly human behavior etc are played up a lot, especially on reality TV. Many times, they don’t serve anything other than to create drama and it’s quite pointless. If I’m a TV viewer, I’m watching to either (1) be entertained (2) be informed or (3) be educated. I don’t find hyped up content to be entertaining, informing nor educational.

Loss of Family Time

TV is one of the favourite pastimes in families. They spend evenings in front of the TV screen, watching show after show. Even though everyone is sitting together in the same room, they aren’t bonding with each other. Each of them is just developing an isolated connection with whatever is on the TV screen.

Now, imagine if all this time is spent talking to each other. Say, asking how each other’s days were, understanding each other, discussing tomorrow’s plans, being a part of each other’s lives, just hanging out. Isn’t that a more meaningful way to connect? Why build a connection with the television and characters on screen when you can be building a connection with real people? TV might be a proxy to bond with each other, but it’s clearly more fruitful to bond with each other directly. I definitely find the latter more meaningful than the former.

Introspection

I am not asking you to completely stop watching television but make it a point that whatever you see is helping you gain something and if not gain then at least you are not losing on anything, be it time, peace or happiness.

Here’s one way you can use to see if something is consciousness raising. Get a sense of how you are feeling first before watching the show. Then as you are watching the show, take a moment to assess how you feel.

• How are you feeling? Happy? Joyful? Upbeat? Motivated? Inspired? Or scared? Worried? Annoyed? Disgusted? Angsty? Weighed down? Stressed?
• What are you thinking? Positive thoughts? Or negative thoughts?
• What do you feel like doing? Do you feel charged up to take action? Make a positive difference? Or do you feel nothing? Lazy? Just want to go and sleep things away?

If it’s the former group, then the content has consciousness-raising effect; if it’s the latter then you can probably do better without it.