The College Years and How I Ended Up Here
When I started college my TV habit could be described as heavy viewing with occasional distractions. College opened up many doors to my future but the immediate impact upon my arrival was the discovery of an actual social life. This is not to say I was a shut in during high school but I stuck with a small group of friends and didn’t mingle much. I certainly didn’t enter the world of chemical dependency that many of my classmates did. College changed that in a day.
Soon I didn’t even mind that we didn’t have cable in our dorm room because I was out on the town 5 nights a week. There was also some pesky school work in those first years that kept me away from the TV. So while I was certainly watching less TV I was consuming massive amounts of alcohol and the balance in my life flipped the opposite way.
Approaching the second semester of my sophomore year my grades were in the toilet and I had been disenfranchised with my original major of journalism. (Turns out I did not like to interview people and that was kind of a road block.) I took an intro film and video production class and was smitten. I quickly switched majors and took theory classes as well as additional production classes. This resulted in a big increase in movie viewing and an uptake on my TV viewing when I moved off campus for my junior year.
I lived in a house with 2 other guys and 3 girls for my junior year and thankfully cable was in the house. With my new found major I was watching more TV but this time with the excuse that it was for school. Also living with a group of ladies led me to shows like Living Single and Friends that I probably wouldn’t have watched on my own. As such my taste, or lack there of, certainly expanded over the next two years.
Graduation came and went and I was out in the real world. I’ll call this the present because for the last 10 years my TV habit has been stuck in a wash, rinse repeat cycle. In that time I’ve become a devoted fan of shows like Buffy and Lost (less the conventions) and have found myself increasing aware of all things TV whether I watch them or not. The bottom line is that I al
Every spring I find myself giving this statement to a friend or loved one: “I watch way too much TV. I’m sad that ___ is getting cancelled and that it’s the last season of ___ but at least that’s two shows I won’t be watching next year”
Every fall I find myself giving this statement to a friend or loved one: “That new show from the creator of ___ (or starring ___) is getting great buzz, I’ll have to check it out.”
And now, thanks to mostly to MTV and the influx of reality you’re likely to hear me say the following every couple of months: “Did you see that idiot show where the ____ have to ____ by _____ to win the ___? It was sooooo bad….I think I’ll add it to my TIVO.”
So why do I watch a lot of TV? Here are my top 10 reasons/conclusions in no particular order.
1. It makes great blog fodder.
2. My upbringing.
3. My addictive personality, which certainly makes me an easy target for shows that have an ongoing mythology.
4. Thanks to a lot of shows, especially reality shows, having shorter seasons you don’t feel like you’re giving this big commitment.
5. TV on DVD. Now you can catch up on a show and if it’s still on the air you can pick up where the DVDs left off.
6. The Water Cooler Culture. Come on, do I really want to be guy at the office who doesn’t know who kissed who on Temptation Island.
7. My pseudo career path.
8. It allows me to sit up high and judge others for no apparent reason.
9. Without TV, how would I know what to consume/purchase?
10. Every now and then you come across a great moment of art that transcends the human experience.
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