I am aware that one of the main themes of this course is critical self-reflection about TV watching; considering my own relationship with TV viewing and how it has changed over time as well as what my attitudes towards TV are, I can think about what they say about the kind of person I am. However, I think it would be useful to point out that I am not a media student and that this course is an elective module for my Sociology Degree. Also, I am a relatively ‘new’ British TV viewer as I lived in Greece my whole life and only came to the UK last year.
My early memories of watching TV are very much embedded within me. Ever since I can remember, there was always some sort of programme I followed, starting from cartoon series such as ‘Pokemon’ to more adult-oriented TV programmes such as ‘Friends’, ‘Prison Break’ and ‘24’. However, as I grew up in Greece, I was limited to the TV Greece provides, which in my opinion, is very limited. Nevertheless, without fail, every single Saturday and Sunday, my brother and I used to watch TV from around 3pm-7pm, keeping up with our weekly TV programme viewing. In addition, I remember that every day after school in the junior school I would come home to watch 3 Brazilian dubbed (to Greek) TV soap operas back to back: it was ‘Esmeralda’, ‘Rosalinta’ and ‘Paola’.
My family as a whole barely affected my TV watching. The one that had a huge effect on it however was, and continues to be, my brother. My parents never disapproved of TV watching though if we spent hours during the day watching TV they would tell us to stop and do something more productive with our day. However, my mother used to encourage me to watch Greek TV shows because she felt it would improve my Greek as the school we were attending at the time was purely English. At times my parents would disapprove of us watching reality shows as well as talent shows but they never forbid us from watching what we