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It is not that I hate watching television or even dislike it, it has more to do with it’s content that irritates me. Otherwise in every valid case - be it entertainment or knowledge gathering - I love watching television. But when I weigh the merits against it’s demerits, I find television to be more negative on me – in a more objective sense: it irritates me. This, I had felt and thought to have a negative impact on the way I look at the world surrounding me and also within me. The negation is on my mental being and that boils down to my attitude towards life. Apart from the psychological disturbances television creates, the content usually finds me with a stench of scorn – I don’t find it logical in a way that I prefer calling things logical.

I have used the television in many ways. Right from playing video games of all kinds on it – 8 bit to 64 bit, connecting  cassette and CD players and watching movies, and of course the broadcasted channels which are connected to the set via the famous ‘cable’. I desire to discuss the content available through this ‘cable’.

The most decent of the television channels are the news channels. They are just supposed to be the decent but they do a great amount of damage. Every individual news channel can be found to have taken a stance on every particular item and they prove to the viewers that the opinion they have put out is correct. The facts are on the dull side of the game and opinions are given more shine. The spicing up of the facts to the ‘creation’ of news makes or breaks a news channel. They all seem to be in a rat race to increase their TRPs but they do not seem understand that a winner of a rat race is a rat. I somehow feel like asking them back if so much of ridiculous stuff is worth being acquired by our brains and expected to be called as knowledge which is said to be a satisfaction in itself.

Some days back I happened to sit in front of the television. Though I didn’t like myself doing this, I had to do – there were forceful reasons behind. I was watching a news channel which was ‘sharing’ with the viewers the story of an Indian girl getting married to a Pakistani boy. They had met through the internet and they had decided to get married for reasons best known to them-selves as if they can’t find suitable matches in their own respective countries. This was ‘news’ according to that news channel. They were showing all the preparation the girl was making at her residence – the design of henna on her hands, her jewelry, her bridal clothes, and what not. For once I just got the feeling that I was watching the video of some relative of mine getting married! I couldn’t understand how such a personal endeavor can become an occasion worthy enough to be broadcasted on a national channel with millions of viewers watching it.

When I find any useless news on the television I can understand that there was nothing much that had happened that day and the channel is playing with the audience. Then the next day when something fascinating happens, it looks as if these channel people have made that happen.

Then there are the advertisements on these news channels that are shown even while the news is being read. They look more like pop-ups popping out when we use the internet. The only difference is that while using the internet we can have a pop-up blocker to stop them and here we can’t have that privilege.

The music channels are a class in themselves. There are those that belong to the lowest class but command a higher TRP.

Among the several shows that irritate me the most of them are the ones that make the viewer come back to them again. They are like cigarettes with a high content of nicotine in them that pull the smoker back in. The lead in this kind is taken by the daily soaps. This is so obvious that it will be silly for me to elaborate the dumbness of these shows. But I salute the directors and producers of such shows – they know exactly what touches the hearts of the viewers and what can make them feel rather than think. The acting performances make no difference; it is the dialogues and the music. Dialogues induce new vocabulary into the minds of the viewers and they learn how to become more expression-filled when they talk to others (when they get time). The music is the chieftain – no matter how the dialogues are, no matter how the action is, or whatever, music creates the perfect atmosphere. Music creates the mood that fits into the story – sorrowful, threatening horror, romantic or pleasant.

It is not the ask for entertainment that pulls people back to these shows but the curiosity of what’s going to happen next in the story. The ‘next’ keeps coming and more ‘nexts’ follow. The show never ends. The finality is that there is nothing final.

There are quiz shows and those that acknowledge the youth for their impressive knowledge filled minds. I wonder if the knowledge in our brains is more important or the wisdom to know what we got to do to have the relevant knowledge with us. Gifts worth a heck are given to the so-called knowledgeable. I am sure what those people thrive to remember can be found in a hundred rupee book available at the nearest book shop. (Am I supposed to know what made a particular car manufacturing company to give a particular name to it’s new car model? Why should I have concerns with that? Let them name it anything – Sissy Boy or He-Man.)

The movies shown on movie channels are again a confusing lot. They are called block-busters and kind. They are just the movies that was declared flop even before they were released.

The other part of the television: advertisements or commercials. There are people who complain about the number of advertisements the channels air. Do they think the channels are run by some government or a welfare society that intends to entertain people? Don’t they understand the purpose behind the running of these channels? It is all money do doubt.

The advertisements are the most severe irritators to me though I am amused by them at times. The news channels probably give away the air time at a lower cost so the adverts on them are third grade with all the local products being publicized. The adverts are either dubbed from other languages or have idiotic themes and ideas. The local music channels air the most rotten of them.

There are of course those adverts, common to all the channels, which seem to have taken birth in a numbskull’s advertising agency. They make good and branded names silly at times with ridiculous concepts used to advertise them. They take superstar celebrities and create a heck out of them. I remember seeing a top notch Bollywood actor trying to sell hair oil that promises to keep my head cool. I have no objections to that but when a favorite of mine is endorsing a hair oil brand by behaving like a fool on the television, it definitely hurts me. More than half of the adverts are dumb and they are worth not a single watch.

But some people do have brains. I love that commercial of an adhesive wherein a woman is working and her about-two-year-old son keeps running away from her. She brings the child back but he runs away again. Then she finally makes him sit on a box and he doesn’t move! The kid is sitting on a box of that adhesive. There in not a single real dialog spoken but still the advert looks least formidable. The logic of a boy sitting on a box that holds him from moving may look silly but it is entertaining alongside advertising that brand.

There are very few commercials of such kind that boast of a wise explanation of why that product should be preferred over the others. Even if there is nothing wise, there are few that just entertain, with no reason, with no logic, but still have a class in them. The kind of adverts a channel broadcasts makes up for the ‘class’ of that channel. Usually the news channels lack this.

Once I turned on the television set to get the latest updates of a cricket match. It was late night and I had to search for the channel that was relaying the game. I came across 51 of them before I could find what I wanted. But in those 51 channels I saw at least 20 of them showing some advertisement of some product that proclaims itself to be the best that would help us slim down and reduce weight. I was thinking if people have no other work than losing weight. Why are they more concerned about their looks and not their brains?

I once saw the commercial of the shaving razor brand I use. I felt like punishing myself for using that brand. I knew why there was a female model in that advert but I didn’t like her being there. This was just one single instance – even other accessories used only by men have ladies in their advertisements.

We have heard a lot about the negative impacts of the television on our society and also the individuals. The thing that pricks me the most is that I believe the failure of most of the marriage relationships that are taking place now a days are mainly due to this television. The actors and actresses are chosen by the producers from millions - these faces are one in a million – picked up and prepared to look perfect in front of the camera. They appear pleasing and incredible and they make money for the industry. But the viewers cough up their lives sometimes because of the same. When they see perfect faces they expect the same from their spouses. But of course their spouses are not one in millions; they are not perfect and as pleasing as the ones seen on the television screen. The expectations are hurt and the relationships broken. It happens directly or indirectly.

The language used in many soaps; the vocabulary – everything; the plots, the sequences – they are all related by the people with their own lives and they don’t imagine the loss as a result of this. It results in people having lesser trust in their spouses. This, in a way, creates a communication gap. The difference between hate and dislike is forgotten, the relationship is lost.

The most beautiful relation created by God is destroyed by a nuisance called The Television. It is not the television exactly but the content that does the damage and harm.

Have people lost their ability to decide what is right and wrong? Have people failed to realize that what can entertain them can also destroy them? Have people been so ignorant of the consequences of becoming couch potatoes?

I have nothing against those who watch television. They can decide for themselves. I am much concerned with myself and I have decided that I will keep away from it. Yes, sometimes it becomes necessary for me to have a look at it when there is something important being shown. And once in a while I do sit in front of it. But I hardly switch it on by myself except on rare occasions. I am glad this thing couldn’t carry me away from my consciousness.

Every person needs some kind of entertainment and it is his/her right. But anything that can be a means of destruction to him/her must be condemned. The whole of television is not bad. It has many good advantages. These kinds of merits and demerits have been discussed at many places. My purpose of writing this was to share why I prefer having the demerits speak for me as a source of drive for me that stops me from watching it.

Keeping away from the television gives me a lot of extra time and helps me have a better commitment towards my parents. Though sometimes I find myself ignorant of some facts shown on the television but it gives a kind of pride to me – not knowing something because I don’t watch television. I am glad to be ignorant about the hit movies now a days, and also the names of many movies. I feel great when someone asks me if I have seen some advertisement and I say I haven’t.

The bottom line: I love not watching television – it is a satisfaction in itself.