rants: tele

Color me confused, I guess. I was reading some articles on CNN.com while I'm here getting paid to wait for the phone to ring. Americans today have such interesting and strange concerns, habits and feelings, don't you think?

For instance, the article was about television. NBC had its worst two weeks EVER last month, and ratings are generally down across the boards. Okay, they said and tried to figure out why this was. Perhaps because of the early daylight savings time. Maybe because television sucks. Or, maybe because people are simply using their DVRs to record and watch later, when they choose, sans advertising. Well, advertisers hope it isn't the latter.

I'm going to side note on this topic for a minute. Now, don't get me wrong. Since moving into my apartment in January, I began to discover the joy of DVR. I can tune in to GREY'S ANATOMY at 9:15 and watch the whole episode, sans commercial interruption and still be done by 10:00. "Wowza!" thought innocent little me. Now, four and a half months into this charade I've come to realize that in fact, *I AM MISSING OUT!* Sure, I get done with my program in 3/4 of the time, but I am oblivious to society. I don't know what movies or new television programs are coming up, I don't know if I should buy Scott or Charmin, and I don't know what my brain looks like on drugs. So, maybe I should go back to watching the commericals again. Or else hire an assistant to watch them and report back.

People then were able to respond in blog-like commentary about the article's merits. Anonymous responders commented they don't waste their time watching television (but they do waste it reading and writing about television online?). Or that they'd rather read a book. Or read the paper. Or get their news from online sources rather than the commercialized-we're-reporting-this-with-sexy-pictures-just-to-get-you-to-watch evening news, no longer with anyone we care about by the way.

Okay. Well. You can find some nifty, educational and exciting programs on television. Take the Discovery Channel's recent PLANET EARTH series. Damn nifty if you ask me. And what's the difference between spoiling your mind in front of the tele or surfing the net? Same difference, I'd say. And, if the technology we currently have at our fingertips had been invented back in the days when writing was invented, maybe there wouldn't be so many books. And would that be a bad thing? You can get some pretty sh*tty books and magazines out there.

I guess it's all in the way you look at it. For Beedow, I know after spending a week of staring at the internet from 10-7:30 each day, I like to go home and actually (gasp!) not turn on my trusty MAC. Instead, I spent the time on the subway home reading my book or magazine, and when I get home, I make dinner and sit in front of the television. It's relaxing. It's nice. It's comforting. And it's the same as sitting in front of a computer, or wasting one's time in a tabloid or bodice-ripper of a novella.

Tomorrow: how to cook a creamy chicken dinner and get drunk on an entire bottle of wine at the same time.