On television

A great deal may be remarked about the quality of television programming. However, programming is far too large an umbrella about which to make a meaningful and pertinent comment. There is undeniably quality content on television, and also a tremendous amount of garbage. Which is which is largely subjective, and not a topic over which I care to spend energy tirading.

The single largest antagonistic element of television is advertising. This, of course, is not a product of the television as an appliance (which I will address later), but of television as a medium for making money. As a person who values independent thought and diverse access to information, watching television is a horrid experience. Constantly is the viewer barraged with commercials that almost always employ gratuitous voiceovers, unrepresentative imagery, incomplete information, and unashamed plugs for the viewer’s money.

It is a sad truth that most television programs would not even exist were it not for the advertising that interrupts them. Even educational shows that claim to enrich the viewer with knowledge are unable (or their producers are unwilling) to free themselves from commercials. It surely is not an impossible feat, since public libraries in many ways are justified in making the same (or grander!) claims, and are publicly funded. Modern libraries, however, are the fortunate vestiges of earlier values. (Imagine that public libraries had never existed and someone suddenly came along and proposed to have an enormous enclosure built that would house thousands of books and other media, and furthermore that any person could visit this place and borrow any materials at no charge, and furthermore that the entire venture was funded by public tax dollars. Such a proposal in today’s climate would be laughed into the recesses of oblivion.)

The only apparent escape from advertisement inundation is from select networks that charge their viewers a higher price for so-called elite programming and commercials that only call attention to that network’s other programming. This seems to be the most reasonable approach. Clearly, such networks are easily capable of recovering their costs with this method, or else they would have failed shortly after their nascence.

The second major caveat to the television is largely a personal problem, though I am sure many others are also subject to it. When a television is on in my surroundings, I am nearly unable to stop myself from watching it. Whether in a bar, at the gym, in someone’s home, or wherever, the visual image projected from the screen mysteriously and suspiciously beckons my gaze toward it. Beyond this, once my eyes are fixed, it is excruciating to pull them away. This happens regardless of the material on display. Even a football game (the mere thought of which makes me pallor with boredom) will hold my attention with its bright colors and nonsensical brutality.

This affliction is made entirely worse by the realization that it is happening in the moment of its occurrence. This has the infelicitous result of making me feel like a sucker. I feel as though I have not the strength to resist watching or even to control the movement and settling of my eyes. I am made to feel even more the patsy because I am consequently subjected against my will to the commercials I hate so royally. I am thus made into fodder by advertising agencies who count on mindless masses watching their interruptions. It isn’t as though I secretly enjoy television, since I will gladly turn the infernal machine off if I get the chance, but I am not usually at such leisure in public places or the homes of other people.

The television as an appliance is also a calamitous burden. Its bulk and clumsiness have been luckily reduced with the recent advent of flat screen TVs and similar technological advances. The ability to hang it on the wall further increases living space, but this reduction can only go so far; ultimately people want big screens, so the appliance can only get thinner and lighter. Anyone who has taken the time to listen to a television when no sound is ejected from the speakers knows that the internal electronics still make noise. A faint but constant electronic tone mixed with the whispering hum of tiny mechanics is forever projected at the viewer and anyone else sharing the space.

A sad reality of modern Westernized households is that nearly all of them contain at least one television, and this device resides in a common area of the dwelling such that it may be used by people generally, whether inhabitants or guests, and not limited to the machine’s owner. Along with this reality is the fact that this appliance is often construed as the centerpiece of the space; its placement and orientation (as well as that of the furniture) is such that the television is intended to be focal point of attention. It isn’t a novel curiosity in the average home, or something to take out and dust off for special occasions, no: it is the principle object in the room. Its primacy surpasses art, books, and even people. This cardinal status makes the appliance so foul and atrocious that only its eventual destruction by the natural sophistication of society will redeem it.