8 Reasons To Turn Off The TV By Garrett DavisI find that most people who are interested in personal growth topics tend to watch much less TV than those who are not. Chances are since you’re reading this site, you don’t spend as much time parked in front of the tube as most others. Never the less, I thought it would be fun to put up a nice reminder of some of the best reasons for turning the television off. 1. Incessant Negativity: This is especially true of televised news. The news media is great at giving you a whole bunch of information that you have absolutely no practical use for and is of no actual benefit to you. Murders, robberies, rapes, car crashes, and the like are all happenings that in the vast majority of cases you really don’t need to be informed of. You know these things happen; You’re no idiot. Taking in such information on a regular basis is bad for your consciousness and is totally avoidable. I am in no way suggesting that you willingly keep yourself uniformed, but simply that you choose wisely the information that you routinely expose yourself to. I prefer newspapers because they allow a degree of selectivity that the television does not. When you read the paper, you can easily make quick decisions as to which news you will take in and which news would be better left alone. You don’t as readily have this option when watching the news on TV. TV news rarely provides enough information about any given topic to make you truly informed anyways. Read the newspaper and you will find yourself informed on a deeper level. A 10 second sound bite only goes so far. Seek the eclectic information offered by the written word over the superficial observations offered by the televised news broadcasts. 2. Drug commercials: Perhaps in an effort to remedy the effects of all the negativity that you're subjected to from watching television, the drug companies bombard the broadcasts with their advertisements for the latest antidepressant drugs. Don’t feel like you have depression just yet? Don’t feel left out, there’s a whole host of other things that they would love to suggest might be wrong with you. If you ever start to feel overwhelmed by this, that’s okay too, because they have some great anti-anxiety medications that reportedly work wonders. We live in a worrisome society, and the drug commercials don’t help. Hypochondria anyone? 3. Violence. I recently heard a statistic that the average 12 year old has seen over 10,000 simulated murders in his short lifetime. It’s no accident that the media relies so heavily on violence. Violent scenes precipitate an emotional reaction from the viewer. Such reactions become addictive, even as the violence retains its repugnance. Why subject yourself to this? Before deciding to watch something violent on TV, consider taking a more pleasant approach to time expenditure. 4. Lethargy. So they say you burn fewer calories watching television than you do sleeping. Isn’t it ironic that there are so many commercials for weight loss products on TV? Perhaps if they were really interested in helping you loose weight they would tell viewers to turn the television off. 5. Expense. Watching TV is expensive. I’m not just talking about the cost of that high dollar plasma TV, or the $100 per month cable bill. Watching television is costly on a deeper level. First off, there is an opportunity cost involved. Every minute spent watching TV is a minute that is not spent doing something more productive. There’s always an opportunity cost involved in anything you do, and watching television usually does not offer much to the viewer in terms of value. Secondly, the television functions as a relentless promoter of compulsive consumerism. It has been proven that the more television a person watches, the more money he or she will spend. Billions of dollars are spent on TV commercials every year for a good reason: They work. 6. Lack of control over stimuli. When you are watching television you are mostly at the mercy of the network you are viewing in terms of what kind of content you take in from moment to moment. For example, how many times have you been watching television when you found yourself totally annoyed by a commercial that you saw? These commercials come at you every 30 seconds or so on the breaks, and you have absolutely no control over what you are going to see, unless of coarse you change the channel only then to eventually run into… more commercials. Ahh! 7. Redundancy. Watching television tends to involve a tremendous amount of redundancy. You’ve seen the same commercial so many times over and over again that you have its jingle memorized, or you’ve watched that particular sitcom episode so many times that you can predict the dialogue word for word. Most of us have had this experience, including myself. Don’t let the redundancy rob you of you mental acuity. The next time a television show comes on that you know you’ve already seen, avoid the temptation to watch it again and instead choose an activity that is perhaps more productive and interesting. Your brain will appreciate it. 8. Meddling in other’s affairs. This is perhaps the most important reason to turn the television off. Watching a lot of TV, especially now with the proliferation of the reality shows, conditions viewers to involve themselves both intellectually and emotionally in the affairs of others. Concerning yourself with the problems of troubled TV show characters will do nothing for your personal development. My advice: Turn the TV off and start focusing less on them and more on you. So there you have it. 8 reasons why I like to Turn The TV Off. Perhaps you have your own reasons for limiting your exposure to the tube. If you do, I’d love to hear them. Feel free to email them to me at Garrett@GuidanceForTheMotivated.com.
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