Impossible, you may say.
Television is a lifeline with the world at large. Without it we would never have seen man walk on the moon, the tragedy of 9/11 first hand, the fun of New Years following the clock from Australia to Hawaii, on-the-spot election results from Pennsylvania, or the reality of war in Iraq.
Television is an invaluable baby sitter for mothers at wits’ end, a meaningful supplement to teaching in the classroom, a way to get around expensive tickets to ball games and a relief from boredom.
It can do your thinking for you, take you to church, give you insights into crime fighting and courtroom procedure, drown out a spouse’s yak or a baby’s cry, teach you new culinary tricks and test your intellect. You can leave it on all day or evening, as many people do, and it keeps you company whether you’re watching it or not. It can help lull you to sleep, or bore you out of your gourd when you’re awake.
Comparing television screens has become one-upmanship at parties, in bars or with neighbors. Direct view vs. flat panel. High definition. LCD, plasma, rear projection, 60-inch screens. How you got a $1,200 set for $999. Satellite vs. cable. Your monthly cost and how you got your service for $29.95 (did you forget to say for how long?). Television setups are replacing the automobile as fodder for bragging rights. Of course, this is a man thing. The women are more concerned with Oprah, Dancing With the Stars and American Idol. Let the men worry about the size and the shape of the screen, unless it messes up the living room décor, which is a woman’s domain. With all these benefits, how can you do without it?
Believe it or not, some people do. They may not be pried away from their cell phones, but television is not part of their daily lives. They tend to read more, to have discussions at the dinner table, to become engaged in outside activities, play games like chess or bridge that require supreme concentration, or enjoy the peace and quiet of a noiseless house.
I have to admire them even if I don’t think I can emulate them. But my recent cable bill did give me pause, because I am not a heavy user of television. An hour a day maybe, unless there is a golf or football game on. I watch more television at other peoples’ houses than I do my own.
So when Time Warner raised my cable rate $3 this month, I stopped to do some figuring.
Television is still only costing me $2 a day. Not bad, I guess. It’s there if I want it, even if I only have an outmoded 27-inch screen. Every once in awhile they change the channels, which makes it tough on me because my set is so old I’ve lost the directions on how to plug in new stuff or eliminate channels now skipped.
My original remote failed a year ago, and my universal replacement doesn’t have things like “mute,” although I can reduce the volume to achieve the same thing. I find it hard to believe that some of my friends who have all the super-new television setups have to use two remotes to turn them on or off. That doesn’t say much for progress.
Since I use cable I don’t have to worry about the mandatory switch to digital, when analog is fazed out this summer. With great effort I went on line to order a couple of coupons from the government to buy those little black boxes I will need on a couple of sets around the house that still use a regular antenna. I hope my electronic order went through because I haven’t received the coupons yet.
Next I should write about my home computer. Considering the cost of my Internet hookup, the huge amount of time lost to crashes or adjusting to updates in my programs, and the questionable value to the betterment of my life, I think I was ahead of the game before I had one.
Old fashioned? Not really. I have a cell phone. I just don’t turn it on unless I want to call someone.
Copyright 2008 Champion Newspapers - Published April 26, 2008
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