Television by Darrin Chandler [6 January 2005 08:24 MST]
Old friends Jim and Debra Mischel have given up cable TV. Good for them. Betsy and I gave up cable a couple of years ago, and never even connected an antenna to the TV. I haven't missed it a bit. We still use the TV to watch DVDs, but that's all.
Jim writes about becoming a bit of an outcast. That's very true, in my experience. Many people find it very difficult to hold a conversation without bringing up television shows. I can accept this easily when it's done as part of the shared social idiom (allusions). It's understandable to relate personal experiences to situation on television that almost everyone is familiar with. But there is a significant minority of people out there who seem to discuss television itself. Always. Tell them you don't watch TV and they have nothing to say at all.
The thing I find odd is that those people are largely regarded as normal by most of society, even though their whole lives consist of work, eat, sleep, and watch TV. They apparently have no life at all apart from their favorite shows. How can anyone stand to talk to them? Even when I watched TV, I seldom wanted to talk about it the next day at work, or over drinks with friends. It's just not that thought provoking.
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