Life with or Without a Television
.Life with or without a TV
Just about everyone in the United States owns and watches television. We have become accustomed to a fairly predictable home life. Every day, we come home, pick up the mail, do our homework, and switch on the TV. Every night, we cook dinner, clean up the kitchen, watch some TV. Every weekend, we do shopping, finish the chores, and settle in to watch a movie. It’s relaxing to hunker down on the couch at the end of a tiring day and it doesn’t take any energy to flip through the channels with the remote control in one hand and a bowl of popcorn in the other. In my family, we grew up with the TV on, all the time. Television isn’t all bad. It creates a comfortable back ground while we take care of business at home and when we’re tired it lulls us to sleep. TV is a companion for the elderly and a convenient babysitter for the young. It makes burglars think we’re home when we’re not. It entertains us cheaply with live action sports, incomparable performing arts and singular events of the world, all in harmony. It educates us about everything from the cells in our body to the galaxies in the universe. Besides, what would life be like without a TV? Could we stand the silence? I sure could, to ease the mind some. How would we relax? What would we do with so much time on our hands? Let’s take a look at how the average family, like mine, might react in a sudden shift to life without a TV. At one time, mom and dad decided to unplug the TV and put it in the garage starting on a Monday night. They wanted the family to spend more quality time together. No one takes mom and dad serious and the family jokes about it all weekend. Thinking that this would all change, and the TV was still in the living room. There was tension in the air, Monday night. Nobody was brave enough to turn on the TV. After dinner, dad disconnects the VCR, takes the TV from the cabinet and carries it out to the garage. The little ones started crying.
Just about everyone in the United States owns and watches television. We have become accustomed to a fairly predictable home life. Every day, we come home, pick up the mail, do our homework, and switch on the TV. Every night, we cook dinner, clean up the kitchen, watch some TV. Every weekend, we do shopping, finish the chores, and settle in to watch a movie. It’s relaxing to hunker down on the couch at the end of a tiring day and it doesn’t take any energy to flip through the channels with the remote control in one hand and a bowl of popcorn in the other. In my family, we grew up with the TV on, all the time. Television isn’t all bad. It creates a comfortable back ground while we take care of business at home and when we’re tired it lulls us to sleep. TV is a companion for the elderly and a convenient babysitter for the young. It makes burglars think we’re home when we’re not. It entertains us cheaply with live action sports, incomparable performing arts and singular events of the world, all in harmony. It educates us about everything from the cells in our body to the galaxies in the universe. Besides, what would life be like without a TV? Could we stand the silence? I sure could, to ease the mind some. How would we relax? What would we do with so much time on our hands? Let’s take a look at how the average family, like mine, might react in a sudden shift to life without a TV. At one time, mom and dad decided to unplug the TV and put it in the garage starting on a Monday night. They wanted the family to spend more quality time together. No one takes mom and dad serious and the family jokes about it all weekend. Thinking that this would all change, and the TV was still in the living room. There was tension in the air, Monday night. Nobody was brave enough to turn on the TV. After dinner, dad disconnects the VCR, takes the TV from the cabinet and carries it out to the garage. The little ones started crying.