It is Sunday and here I am in my room, with sound from a TV in the living room filtering into my room. But I do not intend to move into the living room to watch whats going on although it sounds entertaining from here.
Because I very well know that the moment I start gaining interest in the subject on air, a commercial will pop up and while I will be watching the commercial, a thought in the back of mind will suggest that this is not entertainment! and this is the time I could be utilizing for somthing productive like sharpening my skills or working on my fitness. Or doing some stuff that happens to be more engrossing like this page I am typing on.
There used to be a time when on returning home TV used to be one of my favorite source of entertainment second only to PC. There used to be days when whole week was spent on meditating on that one hour of sheer love for "The Jungle Book" or the "Duck Tales". But lately I have observed that it has rarely been able to retain my attention for more than 10 minutes at a stretch.
Turns out that many things have taken over my time and I cannot spare enough patience to let that commercial break take away my quality TV-Watching time. Instant food, instant drinks, instant tech support and now I (or we?) am looking for Instant-Entertainment.
Moreover with more than a couple of hundred channels, who remembers the schedule and what warrants that one will be available to watch at that time given so many nitty-gritty tasks that keep on popping up all the time. On top of that there are those 5 min long commercial breaks that are enough to divert attention to another channel leading to 'I-am-watching-three-movies-at-a-time' syndrome.
I see myself turning to internet for news, online music, and maybe some purchased movies for non-stop, commercial-free entertainment. Discovery knows my perils and they have put those hour long programs on YouTube and Discovery.com. Does anyone out there seem to relate??
For now, it is good bye Idiot-Box. I have grown up!
Because I very well know that the moment I start gaining interest in the subject on air, a commercial will pop up and while I will be watching the commercial, a thought in the back of mind will suggest that this is not entertainment! and this is the time I could be utilizing for somthing productive like sharpening my skills or working on my fitness. Or doing some stuff that happens to be more engrossing like this page I am typing on.
There used to be a time when on returning home TV used to be one of my favorite source of entertainment second only to PC. There used to be days when whole week was spent on meditating on that one hour of sheer love for "The Jungle Book" or the "Duck Tales". But lately I have observed that it has rarely been able to retain my attention for more than 10 minutes at a stretch.
Turns out that many things have taken over my time and I cannot spare enough patience to let that commercial break take away my quality TV-Watching time. Instant food, instant drinks, instant tech support and now I (or we?) am looking for Instant-Entertainment.
Moreover with more than a couple of hundred channels, who remembers the schedule and what warrants that one will be available to watch at that time given so many nitty-gritty tasks that keep on popping up all the time. On top of that there are those 5 min long commercial breaks that are enough to divert attention to another channel leading to 'I-am-watching-three-movies-at-a-time' syndrome.
I see myself turning to internet for news, online music, and maybe some purchased movies for non-stop, commercial-free entertainment. Discovery knows my perils and they have put those hour long programs on YouTube and Discovery.com. Does anyone out there seem to relate??
For now, it is good bye Idiot-Box. I have grown up!
Hi, great post......'I-am-watching-three-movies-at-a-time' syndrome, the name is simply awesome. Me too suffer from this syndrome .. :)
ReplyDeleteHi Akashdeep, you are showing confirmed symptoms of being a writer in becoming. My first reaction after reading your post was: "Hey, those are my thoughts!" :)
ReplyDeleteSeriously, I could relate to it completely. The syndrome of 'watching three movies at a time' is what I have gone through countless times.
It takes not more than 10 minutes to surf all the channels and then go on to find some other source. The best option is my laptop...hehehe...using that even now :)
Yeah. The idiot box is now maturing. Turning into a really seasoned idiot! :-)
ReplyDeleteFor the likes of us, there are more things in the world to do than oogling at a commercialized invention.