I do.
I know it's the biggest hipster/snob cliche to say I don't own a TV, but I don't, though I may as well because my home is stocked with two desk top computers, two tablets and one laptop all of which can bring us pretty much every show around.
I love All In The Family, The Simpsons,Star Trek TNG, and I'd probably love Breaking Bad and Downton Abby if I'd give them a chance but they want too much of my time. I can watch a movie. I can give you 2 hours to entertain me. Very rarely do I feel something is good enough to escape into for more time than that before it becomes more about the escape and less about the entertainment.
It sounds like we live in a golden age of television. I'm hearing about all the great shows. Maybe I'll watch 'em someday if I'm stuck in a hospital. But for now I refuse to give up time that I could spend doing something interactive, trying to learn how to play the guitar, or even watching a great movie, and another great movie, or spending time with my loved ones. And that's where the terrible irony is. I lose time with my loved ones because they watch TV, something I have so little interest in sharing with them.
I try. I watched a few episodes of House of Cards. Brilliant. Would have made a great movie. Maybe even a couple movies. I watched Sherlock. Great acting. Funny silly plot lines. By the 3rd episode I was feeling over it. I watched LOST all the way through and I want to kick JJ Abrams in the shins for that. I watched Dexter. Jesus. Really well acted and well written but I just can't spend that much time putting violence in my head. There is enough of that on the news.
Even Facebook, that epic time-suck, is at least putting me in touch with real people who touch my life and whose lives I touch. People I can hug, and know and talk back to.
When I was younger it wasn't a big deal. We all rejected TV and spent our time at the river, or making out, or listening to music, or exploring new foods because life was so exciting and we'd just been given the reigns to our own! But I guess we got bored of all that and now I am feeling increasingly lonely as even my artsy fartsy friends spend more and more time watching and discussing the latest must see TV.
And I still don't know how to play the guitar.
