Killing My Television (a little)

One of the bizarre things about modern life is that you can become a TV-addict without owning a television. I did. Earlier this year while I was unemployed and new to the Bay, I watched entire seasons, entire series, mostly thanks to Netflix. Except, not "thanks" exactly. Knowing few people and frustrated in my job search (which was not at all helped by my sudden and profound confusion about what I want to do with my life), I filled up silence with movies and shows. And before I knew it I was blowing whole weekends--heck, even weekdays--catching up on everything I ever might want to watch.

For some people this is fine, but this is not me. I haven't bought a TV ever, haven't chosen one in my living space for most of the last decade. I'm a nerdy reader, a hard-worker, a lover of hobbies (knitting, cooking, baking, trapeze, yoga, salsa dancing, craftiness of all kinds), and, despite a love of solitude, social by default. I send cards, keep in touch with people from my past (or try to), organize picnics and feminist sewing circles. I'm an activist, a meditator, a person who loves to write the way other people love their favorite baseball team. I do not think of myself as the sort of person who'd spend nights and weekends glued to the screen passively.

But I am.

I've always had a bit more affection for viewing than I would like. For a long time it was kept in check by an overstuffed schedule and/or TV-free situation (in India, in an Italian hostel, living in a Buddhist monastery, etc.). When I couldn't watch anything, I generally didn't, saving my viewing marathons for exhausted holidays.

Sometime in the last year, though, I began having nothing but free time and access, and I got hooked. The problem is, I stayed hooked. Even after I had work to do, had friends to hang out with, had stuff going on, had a hint of a romantic life, had all the things that are cooler than TV--I kept watching. And watching and watching. It was like I'd gotten a part-time job watching television. It's how I spent a lot of nights and weekends.

Granted, I still actually watched less TV than the average American household, which tunes in for a whopping 8 hours and 18 minutes a day.  (Basically, all free time ever!) But I still felt consumed by my habit of handing over entire blocks of my evening to instant streaming. So I, naturally, made a little chart system and kept track of how much I watched, when I watched, what I watched, and why I watched. For two long weeks.

Conclusions? Even when crazy busy I was squeezing in more time for TV and movies than for my novel. A lot more time, really.

I'd tried before to be what I imagine is a "normal" viewer: watch one little episode at the end of the day, after the other stuff is done, maybe a movie or two on the weekends. But this is not how we watch anymore. No, when somebody gets into "True Blood" or "Battlestar Galactica" or what have you, they don't watch an episode a night at 9:30, go to bed, and repeat. They hole up for a weekend with every available season and show up late to (or skip) social events. Seriously, I had a friend, a very serious artist, who was late to everything for a solid month because she was watching "Six Feet Under" on DVD.

This is how we live.

I tried something radical that is working (so far): No viewing on Sundays or during the work week at all, full stop. I've only been doing this a couple of weeks and already I have:

--made serious progress on the job front

--made equally serious progress on the freelance writing front (if not more progress!)

--started going to bed around the time I actually should

--read some really fabulous books I thought I didn't have time for

--generally discovered that I have a lot more time than I thought I did

Because even if you were just watching an hour of TV nightly and indulging in three or four DVDs over the weekend, that's still more than a dozen hours a week. And honestly I'm not really going to watch just one episode before bed; I'm going to say "just one more" until I absolutely have to fall asleep. Trying to avoid that is too much strain on the self-control.

I do look forward to some show's new seasons, and I plan on watching them (within the limited window that keeps watching in check). But going semi-TV-free is something I love more. I'm writing this in part to remind myself of that in case I get bored or lonely and want to drown it in television. And I'm writing it in the off chance that somebody else is wondering if "Lost," however great it may be, is really worth surrendering her precious free time to.