Television's Warming Glow

by Nick Pitas

Even though I’m sure it ranks fairly low on the scale of hardships suffered by humanity in general, I did not have television for the first month of the semester. After I moved into my dorm at American University (AU), I spent more than three weeks without the warming glow of Monday Night Football and the FOX primetime lineup.

Although I didn’t suffer from the shakes while it was going on, it was interesting (and alarming) to see how much of an impact television has on my daily life. I would overhear friends talking about popular movies or television shows and wonder silently to myself, “what the heck are they talking about?”

I’m not the “hippest” person as it is. Without television to inform me of what I was supposed to like and dislike, and how I’m supposed to act, I was adrift in a sea of meaningless day-to-day existence. Left to dress myself without the aid of MTV and VH1, I resorted to wearing a burlap sack and pieces of leather tied to my feet to class every day. At my worst, I would sneak into the library and watch the screen detailing the library calendar for hours on end.

Although my case may be a microcosm -- and an exaggeration -- it underscores how important television is in the life of the average teenager. According to an article by Robert Hampel in the academic journal Daedalus, “By the time a child is six, he has spent more time watching television than he will spend in his entire life talking with his father.” This simple fact is mind shattering for a number of reasons: first of all it only takes into account television and doesn’t include other entertainment media; secondly it only considers the first six years, imagine the amount of time spent over the course of a lifetime.

I’m not going to pass judgment however. I enjoy watching my precious Redskins every week as much as the next person. It is something to think about however.

As for me, the light at the end of the tunnel came when I left my dorm in mid-September (in more ways than one, trust me). When I moved back to Virginia for the duration of the semester, I once again had access to basic cable and a 23-inch screen. Much to my relief, “Flava Flav” was still mumbling incoherently about something and I could still catch 500 laps around an oval with NASCAR. Pass the pork rinds and hand me that remote.

Television
Culture
Entertainment
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