Focusing, by Q. Reyes – Artistic Warfare #81
September 19, 2010 Q. Reyes 3 Comments
It already has been almost a year since I haven’t owned a Television. The irony is that I work producing TV shows. I only watch TV on the internet because that way I can choose to watch what I want, when I want.
The great side-effect stemming from all this is that I haven’t watched any real news program in forever, and I am so much happier as a result. I don’t really know what’s going on in the world, and I’m realizing that I never needed to know.
Of course, if there’s a big event or some sort of world-altering situation I’m sure I’ll find out. But I’m glad I have no idea who got killed and why. I don’t need that info.
So my challenge to you… Turn your TV off for a day (If you can).
Mike Gold
September 19, 2010 - 1:03 pm
OK, I’m a total media geek and it’s what I do for a living (livingish), but I gotta admit I always took exception with the whole “turn off your TV for a day” movement. I this it’s very elitist — like those assholes who actually BRAG about not watching teevee. There’s nothing wrong with television. Not a damn thing.
There’s a LOT wrong with television watchers. It’s too easy to just sit there and veg out. But there’s plenty of good stuff and private pleasures, some show great intelligence, others expose us to cultures and concepts with which we are unfamiliar. It’s like the way we eat: put some thought into it, and don’t do it all the time.
But the line between teevee and life is blurring more and more each day. Am I watching teevee right now? I’m watching a monitor reflect my words and thoughts. With Netflix and You Tube and all sorts of other stuff, we have a lot of control over our tubes and with stuff like Facebook (which I check out about once every two weeks) we have turned teevee technology into a means of personal communication. Cheap video recorders and iPhones and the like expand our horizons.
Television wasn’t really a vast wasteland when the fascist FCC head Newton Minnow hung that tag around its neck — there were brilliant shows on at that time from people like Dave Garroway and Jack Paar and many others, despite the fact that there were only three networks. Most markets had a couple independents and a public station (one of which was run by Minnow; that’s where he earned his fascist-elitist tag). Yet there was worthwhile programing and — more important — we have a right to our private pleasures, our junk food television.
People who live for television are as sad as those who live for any one thing, be it drugs, religion (same thing), food, fashion, or kitty-cats.
My argument does not apply to Fox News. Not until they change their name.
MOTU
September 19, 2010 - 2:53 pm
Percentages of the time my TV is on which is very rarely:
1. 50% video games.
2. 40% news
3. 5% Wipeout!
4. 5% porn
There is a margin of error of plus/minus 90% on porn…mostly plus.
I
John Tebbel
September 20, 2010 - 7:03 am
Q–Don’t worry. There are no news programs on television anymore. Nobody’s got any staff left. They just read the papers and the wire and send their crews out to get some B-reel.
And if you add up the programming hours, half your cable bill goes to bring in infomercials.