Three weeks ago I started feeling sick about watching television. I didn't like how I flipped it on when I was bored, or how I intended to watch one show and ended up watching three, and I especially didn't like how desensitized I was to the muck I saw. Certain shows that used to make me wince no longer even phased me. I felt really disgusted with myself for letting my standards slip. I started brainstorming ways to change my TV habits.
My sister-in-law, Sarah inspired me with her goal to go media-free for 21 days. Trevor and I decided to go without TV and movies for that amount of time. And we decided it was time to change our TV-watching habits, so when we start watching again, we don't slip back into the same routines. We made a list of shows that we're allowed to watch. We can add to the list, but we can't just turn on the TV to "see if anything's on." I guess we're active viewers now: when we turn on the TV, we'll know what we're going to watch, and we'll watch only that. We also decided on a three-strikes-and-you're-out rule: three offensive moments and we turn off the show; three offensive episodes and it's off the list.
I thought my reward for going without TV for three weeks would be loads of free time. I imagined getting big projects done, reading two books a week, writing in my journal every day, making dinner each night, and still having time to spend with Cassie and Trevor. Not so. I've had a little extra time, but I've still been busy every day and I'm not getting a lot of extra things done. (I guess that's a good sign- maybe I wasn't watching as much TV as I thought.)
What I have noticed, though? I don't miss it. My life is full and happy without television. ( I did miss the occasional weekend movie with Trev...) And I'm ready to change the way I watch TV now that I've realized how little it enriches my life.
6 comments:
Nice! Those are great ideas!
Interesting idea! We are hardly ever home so all we ever do is watch movies, but I totally understand the 3 strikes you're out rule. It's nice to have a pre-determined limit.
Great ideas! Mike and I have noticed how much more smoothly life runs without TV, but everytime we give it up we slowly start watching way too much again. I recently decided to take a month off TV, and I think when I start watching it again I will adopt rules like yours.
Yay! I'm proud of you. Way to become a delibrate TV watcher :).
It is nice to hear that Sarah could be an inspiration to you :) Seriously though, life is just quieter when you turn off the tube.
Good idea. We may have to try some of those ourselves.
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