my love affair with channel 10

When I got my first television set, I stopped caring so much about having close relationships – Andy Warhol.

I was a television addict.

No. Seriously, I was.

I knew what was on at every time of the day. I was my very own TV guide. Most days, I would ‘study’ while watching Dr Phil, Oprah, Ready Steady Cook, Judge Judy and even Huey!

I quickly turned it off when the Bold and the Beautiful song filled my lounge room, though. That soap is even too much for me. The aged actors with plastic, smooth skin and squeaky, teenage voices creep me out!

I realized I had a problem when Oprah was my favorite topic of conversation, when I called up sick for work, and when I said no to my boyfriend coming over because I was watching a good episode of anything.

Okay, I never took it that far. I was lucky I overcame my addiction before I lost family members, friends and my sanity.

I guess more people are addicted than they think. Why else would they get away with putting such god-awful rubbish on TV?

I didn’t want to quit and neither did my TV junkie housemates, but one night while we were at home getting a fix – boom! Our television set broke. A storm had cut the reception.

My housemates and I just stared at each other.

Wow, is that what they looked like? And what was conversation again?

We had to do something (and quick!) so with beers and a board game in hand, we never looked back.

It wasn’t easy at first. I could tell everyone was tense. We hadn’t found out who the murderer was on CSI, and I didn’t even know what one of my housemates was studying until that night.

But after that night of laughs, scrabble arguments, and the daunting thing called ‘bonding’, our minds began to work again.

Even though TV is still that thing that is far too easy to watch, we do other stuff together now. And that other stuff is fun and easy too.

I’m not saying you have to turn it off forever, but here’s some things to consider:  on average, people spend three hours a day watching television. That doesn’t sound that bad, you say? Well, TV has a numbing effect on people, just like a tranquilizer. Your mind remains passive even after the TV has been turned off, and I don’t know about you, but I like my brain to function at its full capacity.

Studies have shown that after watching TV, people’s moods are the same or worse than before. So why do we watch it?

Some people use it to escape from reality because when watching a show, you disengage from the real world and your brain actually becomes immersed in whatever you are watching.

You’re literally subbing reality for Bold and The Beautiful.

Think about it.

TV is so normal (too normal) that it’s brushed off as a nightly ritual and even a social event. But how can it be social when all you’re doing is staring blankly and letting your brain go numb? Get drunk and dance instead! There’ll be plenty of time for television left when you reach your later decades.

Hypnotizing, brainwashing, energy sucking, mesmerizing, zombie-creating machines – they live in almost every single lounge room around Australia and we don’t even care about their impact on our lives.

In saying that, as I type this article, midday psychologies from Dr Phil sing to me in the background.  Maybe I haven’t curbed my addiction as well as I thought. And maybe I’m just another statistic in their TV bashing studies without even realizing it.

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