8 years without television: a report
In 2005 I was an 18-year-old leaving for life in the great city of São Paulo, where I went with the purpose of studying Art… I was always a man of few material possessions, so there really wasn’t much to take. It happened almost without my noticing, but when I looked, it was already underway: I no longer had a television inside my home. Although relatives and friends offered me TV sets that were spare or gathering dust (“but don’t you want a TV? WHY? What are you going to do home alone?”), I noticed an interesting situation taking shape: life without the influence of the broadcasters’ daily programming. As the days went by I could perceive the undeniable benefits of this lifestyle. Here they are.
SHORT-TERM BENEFITS:
– THE DILATION OF TIME. It is truly impressive how the day stretches out away from television. Even for me, who watched only some cartoons and news programs, the sensation of time dilation was remarkable. Suppose I watched 2 hours of television a day. In one week, a brand-new 14 free hours appeared. Do the math for months, for years, and be amazed at the time we spend in front of the TV set. At first it was even a little odd, but I began paying more attention to myself and to the things I liked doing. Which leads us to the next perception:
– A CHANGE IN INNER TIME. Moving images have a curious characteristic. Because they succeed one another rapidly, we have no time to reflect on the first before the second seizes our attention. After abandoning TV I noticed over time that I became a “slower” guy, calmer and less anxious. Without the noise and the rapid displacements and changes of TV, something in me seems to have settled. I began ruminating my thoughts more calmly. Analyzing facts with more tranquility, for with fewer and fewer external interferences, greater care I came to take in my observations. Which opens a gap for the next topic:
– CHANGE OF REFERENCE / DEDICATION TO ONESELF. With my new spare time, I began spending more time on the activities I was drawn to at the moment — readings, drawings and walks across the city of São Paulo. Unplugged from the news, the soap operas, the commercials, the televised misfortunes, the commonplace, I realized how much I was drawing closer to myself, away from the noise of mass media. Meanwhile, I drew a lot and read excellent books, besides my walks around SP, which reminds me of something:
– REDUCTION OF CONSUMPTION DESIRES AND PERSONAL DISSATISFACTION. One of the secrets of television and advertising is making you feel like garbage. Did you know that? Regardless of the message, the objective is to open gaps in your life, create defects, needs and false desires. So that you feel incomplete and use your precious money, which is solely what matters — your money. Because after all, you deserve the best, right? The operation of advertising works on 3 basic feelings:
- The title of “Consumer” – “I deserve to spend my money”.
- Individual superiority – “I deserve the best things money can buy”
- The acceptance of stupidity – “I voluntarily expose myself to this garbage”
For away from TV you won’t even know most of these things exist out there, won’t see “beautiful” TV people parading objects or physical endowments you will never have. You will instead see real people on the streets, your friends, yourself, and life away from the screens.
– IMMEDIATE REDUCTION OF THE STUPIDITY LEVEL. Communication Theory is clear. The larger the audience of a media product, the lower the level of information it must contain. And vice versa. The math isn’t hard: television programs carry an information level of zero or very close to zero. And by “information” we mean something with a “real” impact on your life, some kind of modification or practical effect toward building yourself as a thinking individual. But who needs all that, right?
MEDIUM-TERM BENEFITS:
– HEALTHIER BODY AND MIND. I have been startled by the number of paunchy people around. They are not fat — many are thin and still sport the famous paunch. The paunch, for me, is the summary of the televisual lifestyle. Seated, hunched, passive before the TV, the spectator feeds on microwave hamburgers and chocolates while his brain and his spirit are ravaged by the misery and stupidity expelled from his set. Mental and physical lethargy deepen their roots into the armchair. Few things in the repertoire of the UPSTANDING CITIZEN are more depressing. And for you who like numbers? According to this reliable infographic:
- people who sit for 3 daily hours before the TV have a 64% higher chance of dying of a heart attack;
- of those who watch TV for 3 hours a day, the ones who exercise are as fat as the ones who don’t;
- each additional hour in front of the TV implies an 11% increase in the death risk calculated above.
It is as if the body rebelled against this deplorable habit.
– SELF-KNOWLEDGE. This is not spiritualist, esoteric or self-help talk. You will really begin to know yourself better, with the passing of time: what you like, what you don’t, your thoughts and your way of dealing with people and things. The silence arising from the absence of TV will operate this transformation in you, whether you like it or not. And it is not an easy process. Sometimes we feel like “emptying our heads” — television is deliberately used by many people for that purpose. Or cheap novels, simplistic editorial trilogies, hardbound television masquerading as literature… But that is the way of the weak. It is the solution of those who prefer to take their brain out and set it to cook inside the warm, tasty jelly of mass media. Facing one’s consciousness and one’s own Self head-on is a difficult, uncomfortable, solitary task. Think hard about whether you want this; maybe you’d better stick to the Sunday variety shows.
– MORE INTERESTING CONVERSATIONS AND PEOPLE. This will occur inevitably, in synergy with the item above. Consider that now the soap opera, the news, commercials — none of it can be a topic of your conversations, because you simply no longer know anything about those futilities. That represents a considerable increase of space in your mind and a refinement of your ideas. You are now a person more dedicated to yourself, with more knowledge of yourself, and for that very reason capable of empathy with people of that kind, and of taking a genuine interest in them. Don’t be surprised if you suddenly find yourself meeting people who also have no interest in TV, and striking up really interesting dialogues with them.
LONG-TERM BENEFIT
– SUBSTANTIAL INCREASE OF INTEREST IN LIFE. Congratulations. You spent all these years away from the screen. Away from the simulation and the lies. Away from the discourse that treats you as a consumer, as a voter, as a viewer — as a person alienated from your own life. It has been ages since you last heard from anyone what you should do, what you should buy — OK, maybe you do hear it, but at least let it be from real people, of flesh and bone, with whom you can talk — and your inner voice today is much more audible. You will make the happy observation that, more and more, a lively and real interest in people, in places, in elevated ideas, will be growing inside you. When talking to someone, you will find it easier to listen to the person and converse at a sincere level with them. Among other innumerable surprises, life without TV shifts the focus from the television characters and from the reality that was kidnapped from you to your own life, and the reality before you (which does not have to be necessarily pleasant, anyway).
– A MORE “REAL” PERCEPTION OF THE WORLD. I remember the years I inhabited São Paulo, in good old Ipiranga. Every now and then I would get a call from someone I knew, desperate about the floods or violent situations in the city, asking if everything was all right. Listening to the birds singing in the backyard of my refuge in the depths of the neighborhood, I would say yes, everything was great — São Paulo is an enormous city, things can happen in one corner without the other corner ever knowing — UNLESS, of course, you are watching what happens on TV, because then São Paulo will really seem a hell many times worse than it actually is (it remains a hell, nonetheless). The media tries to sell us the lie that we need to know everything happening in the world, and that staying uninformed about global events implies some kind of loss or social dysfunction. Henry David Thoreau, in his brilliant Life Without Principle, says he would not round the corner of his house to see the world end. What I mean by all this is that you will perceive another kind of world — the world where things happen around you, with real people and facts, whatever they may be. Your focus will be entirely turned to that world, the world in which you effectively live and act, far from the unnecessary echoes of the television set. Seizing the moment: you also stay away from political advertising, which is an elixir for your brain.
WEIRD EFFECTS THAT HAPPENED TO ME
– I BECAME EASY PREY FOR SWITCHED-ON TVs. I did not expect this, but when I go to a restaurant, someone’s house, a bar, any place where there is a TV on, I must sit with my back to it or stay as far away as possible. So much time away from screens makes my curiosity gravely aroused before a television, for I am struck by a desire to know what people are watching, discussing in the streets, thinking. When I see a TV on, my eyes stick to it like magnets, these days…
– I LOST COMMON GROUND WITH A LOT OF PEOPLE. I never know which soap opera is on, what is happening in the world, news from the media world, nothing. Fortunately I don’t fall short with my closest friends, but out there I notice how dominant TV is in our society.
– I LOST THE HABIT OF “WATCHING”. Some people get especially pissed at me because of this. I no longer have patience to watch anything. Films, rarely, and if it’s bad I have no patience to go on. Music videos people send on Facebook — tough one, very occasionally. Watching moving images has become an activity that generates extreme laziness in my person. Not to mention this classic dialogue: “Have you seen such-and-such film?” “Never…” “Holy shit, man!”
– I LOST RESPECT FOR JOURNALISTS AND ADVERTISERS. Nothing personal, but I realized how much happier I am away from that kind of professional. By the way, they say Brazilian advertising and marketing are “top of the line”. Judging by the extreme secondhand embarrassment I feel when I spend a few minutes in front of the TV, I hope never to see a commercial from a country considered bad at the craft.
– I GET EXTREMELY IRRITATED BY SOME THINGS INVOLVING VIDEOS. For instance, when there is a lively circle of friends talking and one of them decides to turn on the TV. Or when I go visit a dear person and they invite me to watch YouTube videos. Dear person, I came to visit you; email me that crap later. One more little thing that happened: I now find Video Art a bore.
FINDINGS
– 100% OF WHAT EXISTS ON TV IS CRAP. There is no exception and no escape from this absolute truth of the universe.
– ANYTHING YOU DO IS BETTER THAN WATCHING TELEVISION. However glorious or lamentable the act you are about to perform, it involves action, choices, people, places… It is your life in motion, and not that of a puppet that has nothing to do with you.
– IT IS POSSIBLE TO STAY INFORMED AWAY FROM TV. Better still: staying informed only about the things that interest you. And best of all: you will have to ask for them, go after them, select, choose…
– IT IS POSSIBLE TO GET CLOSER TO PEOPLE BY WATCHING TV. I had a serious problem in my professional trajectory when I started teaching teenagers. I simply did not understand many of their slangs and conversation contexts… It was that period when everyone kept saying “Ronaldo”. I watched TV for about 3 days at a friend’s house and my approach with the kids improved considerably. Sometimes when I visit my grandmother I sit with her and watch the soap opera; she likes telling me about the characters, it is a way for us to spend time together. I use the opportunity to run a critical eye over the thing. Use without being used. And still spend a pleasant moment with someone you love. It is not necessary to be that annoying.
CONCLUSION
I don’t think this lifestyle suits everyone. This is a personal report of how my life was transformed by the absence of TV. I can no longer even conceive of that idea in my life, given so many possibilities and things I want to do. It can be a useful way out for people with many desires who are lost as to how to begin… The elimination of TV immediately brings two factors: free time and mental silence — which can be maddening for some. I hope this is somehow encouraging, and if you want help destroying your television set, feel free to invite me!