The Opiate of the Masses

20 Apr, 2006
Posted at 00.02 PDT

Seven hours, 40 minutes.


That’s the amount of time the television is on per day in the average household in America. Seven hours. The mind reels, to quote Audrey Hepburn. That’s a jaw-dropping number. Americans spend nearly one third of their day with the television set turned on. Even creepier, if you assume an average day consists of at least eight hours away from the house spent at work, and another eight hours spent sleeping (and here I’m assuming the television is off, not a safe assumption, I’m sure), then that means the damn thing is on almost the entire time people are home.

Come August, it will be five years since I moved to Seattle, and five years since I’ve owned a television set. Am I proud of this? No, not really. It’s not something about which I give much thought, frankly. But TV Turn-Off Week is coming up, and running across the information on MonkeyFilter got me to thinking about it.

First, a bit of a confession. As an adult, I never did watch much television, so giving it up when I moved out here was no big deal. Come to think of it, I can’t really remember watching much television regularly at all since about 1990. I can remember there were specific shows I liked to catch, especially early on, but as the years went by, I did so less and less, and I haven’t had cable television since the eighties. My last year in Orlando, I do remember watching what seemed to me to be an inordinate amount of television, but that consisted of making sure I caught Frontline and Nova each week on PBS, not exactly a heavy habit. When I moved out here I did so with a limited budget—and a packed subcompact—so leaving it behind was a no-brainer. TVs are so cheap I figured I could always replace it if I so had the urge.

Well, that was five years ago, and I’m still waiting for the urge to show up. And as time goes by, I like the idea of owning one less and less. My disdain for it has grown to Olympian proportions. In large part this has to do with advertising. One thing I’ve noticed by refusing to watch TV is that my tolerance of ads has dropped through the floor; I hate modern advertising with a passion bordering on the absurd.

People look at you funny when you admit you don’t own a television. “But what do you do?” they’ll gasp, a horrified look of pity on their faces. If you own a television set and ask me this, you have no idea how much of an absolute and utter idiot this makes you appear to me. What I do is not spend my time staring blankly at a glowing blue pane of glass. I don’t mean to offend those reading the blog who DO watch television, I just get so damn pissed off when choosing not to do so is treated as some sort of social disease. People get so damn offended when they find out you don’t own a set.

But enough ranting. The folks over at TV Turn-Off.org have some interesting bits of information, and I think they’re fighting a noble, if pointless, battle. One of their PDFs is where I snagged that little nugget at the top of the entry. But nothing gets American’s eyes to glaze over more quickly than a list of facts and figures. The truth is boring, ladies and gentleman, especially when it’s competing with exciting, rewarding fare like reality television. You know, the stuff that really enriches the mind and improves us as human beings.

You know the biggest change I’ve noticed since giving up TV? I have a lot less fear.

One of the hallmarks of television’s early career was a belief that it would act as a benign influence, educating people, showing them our similarities outweigh our differences. I’d argue just the opposite happened. Sure, the perceived size of the world shrank, but what glues eyeballs to the box is excitement. And there’s no denying that murder, death, and horror are more exciting than peace, love, and happiness. Take your local news for instance. Sucks, doesn’t it? If you watch it regularly, what you see are local news stations salivating over every murder, the more gruesome the better, brought to you in lovingly intimate detail. The truth of the matter is, most humans aren’t evil. They’re not bad people. In point of fact most of us are good at heart, trying our damnedest to make our way in the world without stepping on the toes of others. In short, most people are like you. But if you watch television news, you’d never know it. You’ll also never see local news bothering to point out that crime is at near historic lows. Why would they? If you’re not scared, you might actually get up and go outside. And where’s the advertising revenue in that? TV teaches us to fear.

There’s a lot more to this as you might expect of any activity that absorbs one third of the average American’s day. To think such activity doesn’t have strong effects is to lift denial to a level beyond laughable. You’ve no doubt noticed recently the media have been raising the alarm about obesity, as well they should. We’re fat. Disgustingly so. I lay the blame squarely at the feet of television. You cannot spend hours every day sitting in front of the television, bombarded with unceasing ads for junk food, and fail to begin putting on the pounds. Every hour spent in front of the television is an hour robbed from doing something else (not eating, for one). Want to lose weight? Shoot the TV. I’m not kidding.

Television’s effect on American culture has been profound, to say the least. Our habits, beliefs, architecture, lifestyles, slang, have all been remolded in its image. I do not say this as some anti-television zealot. That I’m not. Hell, I download and watch episodes of Lost and Battlestar Galactica from the iTunes music store (when I can remember to, that is), and I enjoy watching them. A little teevee isn’t gonna kill ya. What I am is not a zealot, but a trained historian and cultural anthropologist (Why else do you think I’m a computer technician? You sure as hell don’t make a living as an anthropologist) Observing cultures is what I do. It’s what I find fascinating. All you have to do is observe, and think. It’s easy. You could do it too. Just turn off the TV for a week, and see how much you’ll learn.

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