I am so happy to be TV-free. I am also radio-free. I haven’t owned either for ages, nor have I watched a full-length movie. I do watch You-Tubes, but I don’t watch lengthy ones. I check the length beforehand, and anything over ten minutes, or even five, better be darned good or I won’t bother. I am never “glued to the screen” or anything like that. I can’t stand the TV-like ads on weather dot com, so I don’t go to that site often.
One thing I dislike about running at the gym is that I don’t feel all that safe running on the treadmill with my eyes closed. If I keep them open, I am unable to avoid seeing those TV screens. They stare me down.
Let me tell you, I am shocked at what I see. Of course, I so rarely see TV that it seems strange to me, unusual, kooky, bizarre. I ask myself why it is the way it is. I ask myself why it defies logic. Does what I see represent the society that I live in, or are these images that flash out of these boxes up on the wall the things that cause people to do what they do? Or both? Is this why society is so sick?
So this is what I see: I see violence, a lot of violence. I’d say just about all of it is violence against women. I’d say there is a lot of display of power and force through violence. Is this how we are supposed to solve our problems? Is this self-expression? Is violence some kind of answer? Does it solve anything? It seems like there is violence and then there’s some kind of kiss and make up. Okay, just sayin’. Do you hear me loud and clear or do I have to spell this out? No, I’m not talking about soap operas exclusively, I’m talking about every single commercial and every single regular show.
Okay, now about the daytime commercials. I always keep my fingers crossed that I won’t happen upon some commercial for some pill that we can all pop that will “fix” all our problems, especially one that will pay off the drug company CEO’s kids’ college bills in a jiffy and allow him and his cronies to retire early. I don’t like lies. Nor do I want my treadmill run at the gym to be accompanied by such gibberish.
But I do see other sorts of nonsense commercials, ones that truly make me wonder, “Who watches this crap? Do those companies really think people buy into this?” So for instance, the Rice Krispies commercial: “Buy this and feed this to your kid cuz it’s made of REAL RICE! It’s good for your kid!” And on and on.
Well, I think to myself, “I think it’s been years since I’ve purchased packaged cereal or eaten it except in captivity. I mean, Rice Krispies? Especially for those reasons. What kind of sense does that make? That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard, unless you are dying to hear that noise they make.
So here are ten (betcha I can think of that many, right off the top of my head) reasons why not to buy Rice Krispies:
1) First of all, if you want rice, buy rice! There’s more rice in rice than there is in Rice Krispies, and it’s far cheaper.
2) Rice Krispies are full of additives and plain rice has no additives.
3) Rice Krispies is packaged. You are paying extra for all that packaging.
4) That pretty picture on the package is advertising and the price you are paying for the Rice Krispies is paying for the ad. You get no nutrition from that pretty picture.
5) You will have to recycle that big box and it will take up loads of space in your recycling bin, or you will feel quite guilty if you toss it in the trash and pollute the environment. The plastic wrapper inside the box that packs in the Rice Krispies will be around forever. No, you aren’t getting nutrition from that plastic. You are paying for it and so are your children and your children’s children.
6) You might say, “Well, Rice Krispies are fortified with vitamins. Plain rice isn’t. Well, you can add so many different things to plain rice. You can add lentils, or vegetables, or fruit, or seasonings, or even powdered vitamins such as what I give Puzzle or a protein supplement if you’d like. Or seeds or nuts. Or meat or eggs. You can grind up dry rice into a flour and make your own Cream of Rice cereal, cook it and then add milk, or cook it with milk. So in that sense, you can do your own fortification.
7) Given the above, I would say that with Rice Krispies, you sure can’t do the variety of things you can do with plain rice. Sure, you can make Rice Krispie junk food squares, but beyond that, there are most likely hundreds times more recipes that contain “rice” than contain “Rice Krispies.” Rice is a better staple to have around the house. Since when do you see cookbooks called “Wok Cooking with Rice Krispies the Oriental Way,” or whatever, like we used to find in the 1970’s. I think something like that would snap, krackle, and pop out of print very quickly.
8) Speaking of snap, krackle, and pop, Rice Krispies get soggy. Even if you cook rice, it doesn’t get soggy. If dry rice sits in your pantry and is stored properly, it won’t go stale for a long time. A box Rice Krispies has a freshness date on it for a reason, dummy. Does that stuff contain preservatives? If so, yuck. If not, trust me, they will certainly get gross much faster anyway.
9) Is this really what you want to teach your kids? To eat this crap and that it’s healthy? Gluten free? Oh please. Just go TV free and stop watching those dumb ads.
10) Have I convinced you yet? Are you the one running on the treadmill next to me, glued to the set? Are you going to buy into this, and go traipsing to the grocery store on your way home from the gym and pick up a colorful box of Rice Krispies and give a bowl to Junior? I doubt he’ll be running on the treadmill in 30 years. Naw, he’ll be home watching a big screen TV with a beer in one hand, cigarette in the other.
So all the Juniors of the world and parents of Juniors….I want to ask you something, so if you can hear me above the deafening snap, crackle and pop of Rice Krispies and fake canned laughter, and you haven’t yet been blinded by the constant flickering light of the Big Screen (do you ever turn it off?)…
Have you ever, ever heard me complain of boredom? I’ll bet you haven’t. Cuz I don’t. I am never, ever bored. TV teaches you to rely on their dumb programming for entertainment. Your mind gets lazy. You forget how to make your own amusement. Keeping your mind active is a built-in ability and we are born with this. However, constant TV watching will supply us with this entertainment.
It’s like the thyroid supplement I take. Actually, my little dog Puzzle takes the same supplement. Let me have fun for a moment and make an analogy and I will make this medical analogy work. For both my dog and myself, our thyroid glands weren’t working well enough to sustain us. So an expert decided in both cases to make a certain switch. This is the switch: Both Puzzle and I now rely on synthetic thyroid hormone supplementation rather than using our own glands to produce this hormone. I have been taking thyroid supplementation for decades. Puzzle has been taking thyroid supplementation for a bunch of months and has been stable on her thyroid medication now for a while. Now this wasn’t something I was an expert at and there was no way that I could have made the decision on my own with the limited knowledge I have of the endocrine system, or had at the time, or ever will have. I think this all happened when I was 29 or so and I do recall a doctor who was a thyroid specialist feeling my neck over and over and running tests.
Now in my case and in Puzzle’s case, and in the case of anyone who takes thyroid supplementation for underactive thyroid, this is what occurs. This isn’t what happens with all medications and all conditions, but in the case of thyroid, yes, the thyroid get so, so lazy once it sees that you are taking the medication, that it shuts down completely and you must now take this synthetic thyroid supplement for the rest of your life.
You might ask why bother with the pill, then? Well, as I said, it’s a decision that my vet made because it was evident that no way was Puzzle’s thyroid gland capable of doing what it was supposed to be doing. So this was the best option.
Is TV YOUR best option? Well, this analogy works and doesn’t, or, rather, it’s a bit flawed. TV dependence isn’t necessarily permanent, even though most people think it is. They get very panicky without their favorite shows. They even record a show if they are going to miss it. Or they are in terrible suspense wanting to know what went on and what they missed in certain episodes if they were away from their precious sets or if there was a power outage, or, horrors! out camping, among nature and the wild creatures. Whom did the Bachelor pick? Oh dear!
Wow, the suspense is going to kill me.
Now, in rushes boredom. I told you, I am never bored. I don’t have my synthetic entertainment Big Screen to supplement me. I haven’t grown dependent on it. So my ability to keep my mind active has remained intact. It has never shut down. I am as active a daydreamer as a little kid. I talk to myself all the time. My mind plays. I have conversations with myself just like a kid. I write using my conversations. If you watch TV all the time, you indeed will lose this ability. Your mind will say, “Feed me! I’m so bored!”
Do you really want to be fed crap commercials and violence? Do you want to be fed what others want you to think? Or would you rather be an independent thinker, free of the baloney? Think about it. Trash your TV. Or, rather, take it to your local recycling center, sell it, or give it away. You will save a lot of money. You might save because you are no longer paying that expensive cable TV bill. You are no longer being duped by ads for the dumbest products I’ve ever seen. You will no longer have to worry about what your kids are watching. Once you get over the withdrawal period, guess what? You will find yourself no longer bored. In fact, your mind will be working better and you will now be able to pat yourself on the back and say with pride, “I am TV-free! I quit the habit.”
Well, just like me and Puzzle. Free.
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