My Year Without Television

DAY 14 & 15

2005-06-03T06:15:00.000-07:00

I watched television for several hours yesterday and wednesday. Yesterday I watched the National Geographic Bee, which was great. However, I was also more anxious these last few days and didn't get my work done. I'm off of tv today.

DAY 12 & 13

2005-06-01T20:01:00.000-07:00

I'm loosing track of my days. I've forgotten exactly which numbered day it was that I began this no tv experiment. Actually I thought about it so much that I had to turn on the tv and adjust myself in the seat in front of it to see what kind of effects have taken place. None. I still don't like tv. It causes me great anxiety plus I hate knowing that my pop culture IQ is genius level. I'd like to be remedial or retarded at best not a tv savant.

Someday.

DAYS 9, 10, & 11

2005-05-30T05:20:00.000-07:00

Someone, I think it was Dawn, reminded me that it takes 21 days to form a habit. Yea! I'm well on my way to forming a wonderful habit. However now it's going to be a little harder since B is away for a while. Well, at least quieter. So, I'll continue and try my best.

So far so good. Although I have watched a couple videos in the last few days. But that's fine. Videos of my choosing.

DAY 8

2005-05-27T14:32:00.000-07:00

Wow-day eight and I haven't gone crazy or had a total meltdown. ;) So far, today has been relatively calm. I've been out of the house most of today. I went to the library and to the gym. I even had a quiet meal at the food court B and I like. I found a wonderful book at the public library (to use as research for another book project I'm working on): The Decline of Thrift in America: Our Cultural Shift From Saving to Spending, by David M. Tucker. So far I've read two very good chapters and I'm excited to devour the rest of the book. Not only am I trying to conquer my urge to watch and be consumed by tv but I'm also a frugalist. I believe very heavily in the values, and virtures, of frugality and thrift. I looked for the book on ebay, hoping I'd score a great deal, but it cost $40! Then I looked for it online and off and the lowest price was $50 and the highest was $80. Wow! I'm not sure what that says about the book publishers thrift or frugality. :)

Fortunately I don't get my news from broadcast tv. Newspapers, the internet and radio are more than 'adequate.' So, I'll rack up day 8 as a success. I'm trying to stick to my non tv watching behavior and be industrious and charitable with my 'surplus' time.

DAY 7

2005-05-26T12:37:00.000-07:00

Here I am. Day 7. 7 days without televison. Well, except for an hour watching the season finale of 24, LA and the US avoided nuclear disaster, albeit just barely. :) And minus 2 dvd movies, Goodbye Lennin (excellent) and The Mirror has Two Faces (I've seen it before, amusing, this time I fell asleep before Barbara's first line).

At the beginning of the week I was quite proud that my new non tv life seemed to affect me so little. Maybe a little too proud. Or maybe I was just happy. Liberated, happy even. But then on Tuesday I started getting little pangs of tv withdrawal anxiety. Earlier in the week I pasted a smiley face on a blanket and laid it over the face of our tv (much to B's amusement). It was funny and the tv seemed no longer the most important piece of furniture in the front room. But then, always at around 7 or 8 pm I found myself walking past the tv wanting something to drain my brain for a few hours. I wanted to pour over the dials and run through shows just to fill the background with a little familiar, and I'm afraid, soothing white noise.

No matter how engrossing the walks B and I committed ourselves to were; no matter how many deep conversations we involved ourselves in; and no matter how many pages I wrote towards finishing my novel, I just couldn't deny those 'feed me tv' pangs.

Well, today is better, so far. I've walked past the tv and not one 'feed me tv' pang has pinged me.

Slowly, slowly, I know.

DAY 6

2005-05-26T05:18:00.000-07:00

I had the tv jitters today and caved in to watch a dvd. I watched "The Mirror Has Two Faces." A movie I've seen a million times. I put in the dvd and promptly fell asleep. Hmmm...this won't be as easy as I thought. B suggested that I chuck the 1 year plan and try to not watch tv before 8 pm or just 30 mins or 1 hour a day. Hmmm...I'm not sure.

Any suggestions?

DAY 5

2005-05-24T17:50:00.000-07:00

I spoke too soon. For some strange reason I've been having 'feed me tv' pings for the last few hours. I'm not sure why. I'm trying to understand this in light my lifes new order. I'd like to chalk it up to tv withdrawal. TV is not benign. It's not neutral. It has and it affects the bodies physical and physiological systems and orderings. Maybe these feelings arose because I watched the season finale of '24' last night. Maybe that little taste was too good. Changing your behavior is one thing but adjusting to the new environment in its place will take a bit of time.
I think I'll take a nap.

DAY 4

2005-05-23T12:16:00.000-07:00

I've been rising at around 7am. It's easy to understand older folks affinity for rising early. More time. My non tv watching days have been filled with reading, writing, discussions and uninterrupted stretches of thinking. I can't imagine putting tv back into my life. For all the years I watched tv; hours and hours each day, suprisingly, or maybe not so, I'm having no struggle divorcing it at all.

DAY 3

2005-05-22T05:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I took a wonderfully long nap in the middle of the day. I laid down at 3pm and awoake at 8:35pm. I picked up and read a few chapters of Nichols Foxs' book, Against the Machine... a great little big book about the history of the Luddite movement and it's continued presence and significance. A line from a Wendell Berry excerpt stood out (from his essay, "An Entrance to the Woods": "I am alive in the world, this moment, without the help or the interference of any machine. I can move without reference to anything except the lay of the land and the capabilities of my own body...I am reduced to my irreducible self."

What a beautiful passage. And then it struck me , because I've only now been able to feel it, that this hyper consumption of tv that I had allowed myself all these years, that I had allowed tv to come between me and my irreducible self to the point that I had forgotten about the rawness of my own little human experiment-my own life.

DAY 2: Part One

2005-05-21T08:32:00.000-07:00

Last night I slept especially well. Mostly I use the television like a sleeping pill but last night, without tv, I effortlessly transitioned from work to sleep. So far this morning, I've done the laundry and more work on my book. B and I talked about our 1,3 and 5 year plans and decided to write them up and post them on the wall of our workroom.

No TV Body/Mind Check
-I feel relaxed and well rested
-my mind is clear and lucid
-I don't feel any anxiety, such as I do after watching tv

DAY 1: Part Two

2005-05-20T20:43:00.000-07:00

I imagine the evenings will be harder than the days. The days take care of themself, through busy work. The evenings are raw and exposed. My first no tv evening was spent reading through different theories of human nature, taking a walk with B and talking about 'Therapism' in America, and outlining a new chapter for my book.

At about six I became conscious of a slight restlessness but other than that there was nothing. Well not nothing, there was contemplation and, as always, good conversation with B and Dad.

DAY 1: 365 Days Without A Television

2005-05-20T06:05:00.000-07:00

Today I begin my journey through life without a television. I was prompted to begin so soon due to B yelling at me last night because I'd rather be watching, "...one more hour of 'Judging Amy'" then discussing the first chapter of One Nation Under Therapy.

There are errands to run this morning so that will keep me busy and out of the house but I'll still have the afternoon and the evening to contend with. I've only felt a slight nudging, tugging at me, it was when I walked past the sitting room this morning. I think the tv was laughing at me, 'oh yeah, this is really going to work!' ;)

The rooms seem much darker without the television on, I think I'll turn the lights on. Oh well, my day begins.

I go where few American's dare.

2005-05-19T15:23:00.000-07:00

No TV!

Ready to begin, almost.

2005-05-19T08:53:00.000-07:00

This little sef-experiement will represent my efforts in learning what happens to the physiology, psychology, and everyday life of a 30 something generation x'er who abandons tv for an entire year.

My official start date will begin on May 23, 2005, right after the season finale of '24' (well I had to start sometime).

Will I feel a physical withdrawal kin to an addict going through detox? Will my mind grow in leaps and jumps? Will I become a more active participatory American/citizen? Will I end up in a heavily tv'ed psych ward? Who knows what years of television consumption has done to my system both physically and mentally, not to mention spiritually.

Let the journey begin, uhm next monday.