Stop abusing the tubes

This is a topic that has been steeping for a while because I couldn't find the right angle in without pissing off people without meaning to. It's fine if I'm trying, but here, I have to tread carefully without coming across as a hypocrite. I like to practice what I preach, and so if I preached, "I hate TV so much," well then I'm staggering into hypocrite land. And besides, I don't hate TV.

What upsets me is abuse of the TV as a way to avoid reality. In much the same way, I get upset with people who escape into a game or a book to the point where nothing else matters, ever. You ask them what they did last week, and all they can talk about is fake events. The real world passes them by, and they have no life of their own. They live vicariously, either through a digital avatar or through fake lives acted out on TV.

I love my forms of escape. I love video games and books and comic books. I'm not so hot on TV because mostly it's cop shows and I am officially sick to death of cop shows. BUT, there was Teen Wolf this season that caught my eye, and I like My Name is Earl… There are also many shows that I've loved in the past. But I did other things between the shows.

Some of y'all now balance a netbook on your knee while channel surfing, so you go from one screen back to the other, without ever once getting up. That's not healthy. Go ask your doctor, "Doc, I sit on my couch all night and rarely get up unless I need to go to the bathroom or the refrigerator for a snack. Is that healthy behavior?"

And, you don't really need to ask, because you know what you're doing isn't healthy. But instead of doing something about it, you get incensed and insist it's not your fault for being dangerously sedentary. Even though it's you who's developed an addiction to distractions. Still totally not your fault. Nope, it's my fault for bringing it up and suggesting that you should change.

Regular readers know how I started developing worsening health problems over the last three years because of my screen addiction. Writing is a major creative and emotional valve for me, but when I started writing all the time and doing nothing else, my body changed, and not in good ways. I went up three sizes in jeans and all my underwear strained to contain me. I couldn't pinch anywhere without making a handful of cottage cheese. And yet….I looked thin. So not only was my escapist hobby not profitable, it wasn't very good for my body. But, it also wasn't good for anyone else, because I couldn't spend time thinking of other real people. I had to save brain space for fake people.

Then after writing and editing and talking to people online about covers and guest posts and other writing related stuff, I had to go over to the social networks to keep up the promotions…even though this really had no effect whatsoever. This was true three years ago, two years ago, and last year as well. Increased efforts and increased exposure meant jack shit for sales. BUT what they did do is build up a bitter sentiment watching the casual hate spewed by other people. That's not really conducive to a healthy mental state, is it? No. So, that's why I quit visiting social networking uselessly in the name of promotion.

For as bad as I was, hubby is worse. Hubby sits down after work in front of his Mac. When it's time for dinner, he goes and turns on the TV in the kitchen and watches cop shows for five hours, reading fantasy books during the commercials. At no time do I not feel like I'm interrupting something for him, and not one conversation does he listen to me for a full paragraph before his gaze goes back to a screen. Doesn't matter what topic. I could be telling him a joke or offering sex. The distraction is always more interesting. Some days, I'm truly amazed that I haven't hauled off and smacked him, just to get a more honest reaction.

And, I can't even convince him it's an addiction.

Mind you, he's not always like this. But once he's in the addict zone, I'm no longer important. I've often gone to him at 7 PM and said, "Maybe we should eat." Then, three hours later, I go back in and say, "Do you feel like eating?" And he glances at me, looks at whatever blog post he was watching and goes, "Uuuuh…no, I'm not really hungry."

And in the trash is the evidence for why he's not hungry, because he consumes packages of crackers without thinking on them as empty calories. Which is why even while hubby angrily insists, "I am so dieting!" I have to remind him that he has a lousy diet, BECAUSE he has a screen addiction and doesn't look down at what's he's snacking on. And I can't make him believe me. He says that I'm crazy and making things up. Even after I've caught him in the act of passive snacking, he won't admit it's a problem. He won't even make a half assed effort to reduce his time on the screens to monitor his snacking more closely.

But then, I doubt I can convince anyone of anything. That screen, it's so pervasive in our lives, and we never walk away. Well, I did, actually. I do all the time. As it is, watching Teen Wolf, I had to download it as a torrent because I wasn't allowed to see the English version online. But aside from this one TV show, I don't watch the screen obsessively anymore. I probably give the impression from my blogging that I'm here all day, butt in seat. I'm not. I have to take care of my balcony garden every day. I have to get up and do a little exercise to keep my ass lean. I have to move around and do stuff, because these screens cannot be the rulers of my life. And for some of you, they're almost your god now, the shrine where, just as Gaiman wrote, you all sacrifice time to Media.

People, when you sit down to watch TV, how long are you down? What snacks do you eat while watching, and have you ever added the calories? It's like a trifecta of addictive behavior, and yet, most TV watchers don't realize they're abusing it. How can they, when the side effects are so subtle? A reduced attention span and a heightened sense of apathy? Hell everyone has those, right? Everyone watching TV, yes.

But in addition, there's also the comfort eating that often goes with TV viewing. Crack a soda, eat some chips or popcorn, no big deal. Except, the soda you drink packs on the kind of body fat that you have to work like a motherfucker to get off. (And trust me, I just had to work like a motherfucker to get rid of some soda-based fat.) And the salted snacks you eat can damage your heart AS you're eating them because of the high sodium levels. But you don't check the labels on the snacks you eat to find out how much sodium you're consuming, or do much research in the ingredients lists. If you did, you'd feel a bit more worried about eating half a can of chips in one sitting.

There has to be a way to convince people to give up some of their TV shows in exchange for healthier recreational habits. It doesn't have to be vigorous exercise, but it should be something to get your butt up and moving around the house for a bit, just to get your circulation going.

On the days when I'm too pooped for exercise, but not too messed up by MS to move, I use those days to dust or clean the floors. I do something to get up and use my limbs so they aren't sore and knotty when I hit the couch at night.

I really do wish living by example worked for more people. I mean, I've written over 30 books in 5 years, traveled the world, and I really can't say I've done too badly for a GED graduate with no college, a poor formal education, a mental illness, and number of social stigmas to overcome. When I recognized that my online habits were bad for my health, I retired and started pulling away from the screens. Now my friends and family are telling me I look fantastic. I've gone from 136 down to 120, and almost all of the remainder is muscle. (Still got some belly fat, but a much, much smaller amount.) Can I practice what I preach? Hell yeah! Can I lead by example? Er, no. Wish I could, but that shit really only works in books and on TV. In the real world, people resent anyone pointing out their accomplishments. It's not inspiring anymore, It's "bragging to make the rest of us feel bad." Yes, heaven forbid that you might feel bad, act on the guilt and actually do something for a change of pace.

I dunno, people, it just seems to me that you'd rather watch fantasies about solving crimes rather than acknowledge that real cops aren't so good at solving cases. Also, some real cops aren't so good anymore, period. Rather than work to fix your world, you'd prefer tune in to fantasies about fake people providing easy solutions to complex issues. Which doesn't fix those issues in the real world, but it does satisfy your need for easy answers.

Screen addiction and TV abuse upset me because it's easy to prove that most of our societal apathy and laziness is the result of too much time invested in sedentary activities. Yes, the media's negative programming efforts help too. But the effects wouldn't be so pronounced if people didn't volunteer to be indoctrinated for hours on end, week in and week out.

In fact, to shut your kids up so you don't have to parent, many of you pop in a movie and indoctrinate them into the wonderful world of Disney entitlement, where everyone is special and has the right to get what they want. Then, you graduate them up to other delusions of entitlement, while at the same time encouraging them to remain ignorant. Years later, after these bad habit have been deeply ingrained, you'll ask, "Who taught them this crap?" Uh…back up to the top of this paragraph, hoss. Still not seeing the connection?

People don't discuss limiting TV time, and they don't think of it as something they could abuse. But it is harmful, to your body, to your mind, and to your world. You may think I'm spouting more crazy shit, but please, just ask yourself one question: "What would be wrong with reducing the number of hours I watch TV and replacing it with a healthier habit?"