kill your tv

Last night, I missed Alias. It was a new episode too. Did I care? Not particularly. The other week, I missed a new episode of Queer Eye. Did my life end? No. Everything continued doing what it did.

Part of this mentally stems from my ability to just on to the net and download practically any and every episode that I missed a few days after it comes out. Is it the same? No. Is it better? Sometimes. There aren't the commercials, sometimes it's in HD so it's in widescreen format. Sometimes the video image is darker so things aren't as clear.

This isn't a tyrade on the advantages of downloaded media, but rather an issue of mastery. When it comes to media and different mediums of it, it's an issue of being a master of the information that you are receiving as input. Are you on call when your favourite show starts? Do you jump and race for the phone every time it rings? Do you schedule your days around particular shows that you watch.

Granted, these things aren't necessarily bad in themselves, but they are indicative of something else that is under lying. We've been taught and raised by the television. To us, it's been our mentor, comforter, and friend when no one else was around. We learn everything we know from it. Now adays, we have television's cooler younger brother, the internet. Now, we can learn all we want from it. We can communicate with it, instead of sitting there and listening to its stories.

We think we are in control. In reality, we are slaves. Slaves to the information that we seek to entertain us. Slaves to the information that we need to feed our intellect. Slaves to the bits and waves that make up our lives.

Print, paintings, film, television, the internet, these things are all tools for man to use. None of these things are bad in themselves, but when you raise them up and make them into something that is more important than they actually are, than you have issues. All these things were meant as tools. They can be used to teach, to learn, or to entertain.

But when you find yourself "missing" that show. Or stopping everything else that's going on to participate in this medium, are you really in control? Is it just a pavolian response, or is it a matter of your will. If you wanted to, would you be able to stop and say, "I don't need this."

My challenge to you is to kill your TV. My challenge is to neuter your computer. My challenge is to break the chain of your telephone. Start living your life in control. Start living your life where you decide what is important and not these huge multinational conglomorates.

You have choice and freedom. Exercise them by saying no.