Television: Inefficiency At Its Finest.

by Tabitha Hale | September 2, 2009 6:20 pm

I gave away my television in 2006. Yes, I’m one of those people. It was not some snooty faux intellectual “I’m too good for the idiot box” mentality that caused me to get rid of what would now be an antiquated black box… it was convenience. I was in college and living the nomadic, transient existence that comes along with that, and ran out of space during a move. Basically, I was tired of hauling it around. I had planned to replace it with a shiny new-fangled (three years ago, anyway) flat screen, but that plan was quickly aborted when I looked at my checking account, and I wound up without a replacement.

Now, I’m an ADHD kid – getting me to sit through anything is a miracle, so I was never too much of a TV person to begin with. Well, unless there’s X-Files involved, but that was a special case. At first, I didn’t so much know what to do with myself when I woke up in the morning and couldn’t turn on the Golden Girls and Will & Grace on Lifetime, as I’d gotten into the habit of doing (don’t judge me) . Even though I didn’t pay attention, it was effective background noise, and I’d become so used to it that I barely even realized what a part of my morning ritual it had become.

However, I don’t miss it. No, I have no idea what people are talking about when they mention American Idol contestants or a Lost plot that apparently makes no sense to anyone involved. I’ve never seen any of the top shows, and am actually struggling to list them for reference here. But seriously, is that really a loss? The big events still manage to make it on to my radar. When there’s something important, I sit on a friend’s couch, as I did for the presidential debates and the town hall events I’ve live tweeted. Generally, life goes on pretty well without it.

I have embraced social media as my news source of choice. We live in a world where information comes to us. I’m a busy person. I’d much rather watch a 3 minute clip from Fox News than sit through 2 hours of morning broadcasts to hear one or two stories I’m interested in. For every 40 minutes of content there are 20 minutes of advertisements, and that’s just not an effective information ratio for a generation full of attention deficit, instant gratification adjusted teens and twenty somethings… of which I am one.

I have no interested in resurrecting my television dependency. If something is a do-not-miss, earth shattering event, I will hear about it. Honestly, Twitter and the blogosphere have proven time and again to be more time efficient than old media, so I generally hear about things even before they make it onto the airwaves. I’m sure I’ll wind up with a TV again someday… when I have children or a husband who demand it. Until then, I’ll hone my social media obsession and enjoy going home and not bringing the cast of Dancing with the Stars into my living room every week.

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