I really dislike television. I almost hate it, actually. You might be wondering, "But why? That's where you get all of the news, films, programs, and basically almost everything else that's popular and new from!" Well, that's exactly where my problem is. But that's not where it ends. Let me explain...
As a general rule of thumb, I don't watch television. There's a maximum of five programs that I'd care to watch, and that's about it. These programs are either comedy shows or factual documentaries. I don't like watching films on television, nor watching music videos, nor do I follow sports, and I absolutely don't watch the news on television. I may, from time to time, break this rule if something important is happening, but that doesn't happen often. Now, why do I hold on to this rule? I'll start by laying the foundation to this philosophy of mine. The first principle I hold is that I do not like being manipulated by someone I don't approve of. I believe that's the case with most people actually; nobody would like to be manipulated by someone they don't know. With television, what's happening is that I'm always being subconsciously manipulated by what's on the screen. If it's news, then it's the presenter's bias that affects me. If it's a show (be it comedy, soap opera, or whatever), then I'm being manipulated by the producer's bias towards the social, cultural, and ethical norms he prefers and promotes.
Now to my second point: it's a waste of time and energy. Before you read this, I'd like to point out that I'm not the best person with time management and not wasting time. I do waste time, but in a different way which I'll elaborate on later. Here's the scenario: you are a sports team fan. You like that team, you cheer for them, you watch their games and you've fought with you friends who support other teams over which team is the best. I'm not against the idea of support, but the over-confidence that some fans carry with their "I'd die for my favorite sports team" ideology kills me. An anonymous person once said, "Soccer is the opium of the people." I support that statement in all its sense. Most die-hard soccer fans waste an unimaginable amount of time watching the games, and an even more time and energy are wasted when they fight about the games. What's the point? I do understand and appreciate the idea of needing some form of entertainment, but the fighting shouldn't be part of it.
Third... well, this one's not hard to state as is, so I'll be bland about it: what's the problem with the people creating the media that we see on television? Why is it that almost all shows have to revolve around sex, failing marriages, blood and gore, and/or theft and murder? Why is it that most of the ideas that are shown on television are destructive and/or negative in nature? Why do they insist on infecting the people's subconsciousness with such ideas? I've got two answers in my head: either it's that they can't find anything else to entertain us with, or that they purposely want to plant these ideas. Either way, it's horrible. Why is it that, when watching television, one has to be aroused by the disturbing displays of sexuality or violence? What is the world coming to?
What's worse than these three points is these three points combined. The problem is this: let's say that the average person watches a show, the news and follows a sports team. During the day, they waste away their lives staring at the pixels that form their favorite characters that promote certain ideologies, the news reporter that promotes his biased point of view, and the sports team that empties the head of anything useful and fills it with all kinds of useless trivia. This sick individual then leaves his home to interact with others, who share the same warped views of sexuality, beauty, religion, culture, and almost every other aspect of life. Said individual becomes a hedonist, i.e. one who lives only for pleasure, as it is the only good in life. While that may sound good at first, consider this: what would happen to this individual if his primary source of pleasure died? That's possible, but not realistic. Now, to the more important question: what would happen to this individual if his source of pleasure was controlled by people who manufacture him into the person they want? I tell you, capitalism now applies to humans too and not just physical goods.
The problem is even bigger than that, because it's not just the television. It's also the Internet, everywhere and all the time; on smart phones, tablets, laptops, computers, etc. It's the idea of manufactured media in general. There's no independence for us unless the corporations running this system fall down. We can kill them, but most of us are too weak to resist the pleasures they offer. When will we realize?
"It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity." -- Albert Einstein
"Everything popular is wrong." -- Oscar Wilde.
"We are the universe, destroying itself." -- Matthew Bellamy
Before I leave you, I'll give you this: have hope. One day or the other the system will die. Either we will kill it, or it will become so frail and weak so that it'd collapse upon itself. The wait could be long, though. So, brothers and sisters, I beg you to join the noble cause of returning humanity to what it should be: simple, loving and happy.
Do you see why I don't like watching television now?
God bless.
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