My house is 80 years old or so, and I have my living room set up like what Grant describes. My TV, set up just for watching movies, is in the other back room, behind a wood door cabinet.

I’d argue that modern architecture reflects this kind of mindset our society’s created. It’s why these suburban ‘Garage Mahal” McMansions are all garage — with no human-centred features like porches or verandas.
On a similar note, look at the degradation of our downtown as an extension of that hunkered-down, isolated mentality. That so many buildings, like the Strand, or many others along Tenth, are sitting vacant is a travesty but you are right — gawking at a TV tends to siphon off a person’s creativity and sense of engagement with others.

Concerning the Wheat Kings in comparison to really great television …. Eye of the beholder has to be the measure on that one. To be honest I was not even thinking of the Wheat Kings for sporting events in so much as I was thinking minor sports and in particular, watching people you know play (or sing or act or??????) or their children do any of the aforementioned activities.

Remember too that I am not at all suggesting that everyone has to agree with me. The thing I wonder about is how many hours in our world are being put to less than ideal use by sitting in front of the tube on a habitual basis.

Our society, in large measure, is a decadent one. Don’t get me wrong, I love our society for the most part and the benefits that it affords. I just really believe that it would be a better society if more of our time was spent doing things that have a productive end in either creating tangible benefit or cultivating relational improvements.

For example…… I hate it when people tell me that they do not have time to engage in say, gardening, or exercise, or community volunteering, yet…. If pressed, there are several hours each week expended on … Television.

Arranging one’s home around the television, and yes our rec room is set up to catch the glow off the movies we watch, is likely the stuff that a Master’s thesis in sociology is made up of.

Several years ago I offered an advertisement idea to World Vision. I have since re-offered it to one of their board members who is reconsidering it.

The basic idea consists of a page divided in two. On one side of the page there is a family, who one can see through their window, watching TV beneath the very visible satellite receiver on the roof. The other half of the page has a small child holding up an empty food dish to mirror the satellite receiver.

The punch line on the ad goes like this….

For 32 dollars this month: Which dish will you fill?

That said, my TV no longer occupies the same position of prominence that it did when I was younger. And I’m a dyed-in-the-wool reader. But I’m starting to feel that the best way to judge art and entertainment is by its actual content — and the medium it’s conveyed on isn’t necessarily a good shorthand for that.

Interesting observation: I have a friend who doesn’t own a TV. His living room is set up in a much different fashion than most other living rooms, simply because most people arrange their furniture around their television as a focal point. In the absence of a TV, the furniture gets arranged in a way that’s much more conducive to conversation and socializing of all kinds. It’s sort of amazing, actually.

I will take a well equipped home library over television any day. Today we have no outside television we do have internet and dvd/vcr. We find that it is not unlike food consumption. One tends to eat better if each meal is prepared as it is needed rather than sitting down to a mass consumption buffet every day.

With my Mom and Dad in-law now living on the same yard, and they have satellite tv, we are having to learn to manage our media consumption a little bit differently. Now the kids watch a bit more television but interestlingly enough I think I have watched about 2 hours of television there in the past 10 months. This consists mostly of the last two periods of last spring’s Stanley Cup final game.

I am not advocating for full out bans on television but my personal belief is that there is a whole lot of potential imagination that is stifled by over consumption of the imaginations of others in the form of mass electronic media.

It is also my experience that live activity in one’s own community in the form of sports, music, drama, debate, and even simple conversation with real human beings is far more nourishing than the stuff one vacuums up from the tube. In fact, I would challenge anyone to take a break from the television and to experience their favorite viewing “event” in a local fashion on a regular basis.

Sorry if it feels like a very fun post has just been hijacked by a philosophical discussion.

However, isn’t that why youtube exists?

Such a deprived childhood I lived with only rare glimpses of television.

@Matt — ahhh, Bloom County. I miss it so. Great editorial cartoon, too! Thanks!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Walters

http://www.hollow-hill.com/sabina/images/detainee-balloons.jpg

http://asmallcafe.blogspot.com/2008/07/cutter-john-and-opus-did-it-first.html

Even though I watched very little television growing up I do seem to recall an A TEAM episode in which one character conned prison guards into giving him “trash bags” which he combined with blow dryers, a lawn chair, extension cords and duct tape to get enough lift to get over a prison fence and wall.

Not sure where that little bit of memory is stored in my head but I can’t seem to forget the image.