Absence of Television

Absence of Television

This week I have decided to test myself. Can I go an entire week without television? I’ve decided to take it day by day and give a summary of each day and compile it into one blog. I don’t follow every show, or stay up to date of who won what game in the NBA. I’ll turn a game on or chill out watching Netflix for a half hour or so but I’m not addicted to television. This is what I thought going into this social experiment. After doing it, not so much the same thought process. While I still don’t think I am addicted to watching television I definitely cannot go without it forever. My “going into thoughts” were simply that it was not going to be easy, as a matter of fact near impossible. I thought maybe I can just not think about it and just lose the desire to sit down and turn on the television.  I considered cutting it off completely after becoming so bored at times.

            Coming into the first day I was very open minded and positive that it wouldn’t be that much of a challenge for me. I started the experiment on a Monday, which happens to be one of my busiest day’s school-wise. I started my day bright and early at 8am and headed down to get some breakfast. In the fraternity house I am living at there is a TV in the dining room where everyone eats breakfast. This time I had to change my daily routine and take my breakfast back up to my room where I have control over whether the TV is on or off. After finishing my first two classes I was back at the house for 2 hours before math. This is when I thought it would be hard. The biggest challenge for me on Day 1 was to occupy myself in my room without the TV. That means no Sport Center and no video games. I occupied myself best by focusing on school work. This is when I thought to myself This is going to be beneficial to my school work.

            Next came day 2, and by far the hardest day in the first half of the week. My Tuesday’s class schedule is English 101 at 9:30 and that is my only class. That leaves me roughly twelve hours to kill, without television. I started after class by going to the grocery store and just trying not to be in my room. I got some shopping done but then I thought maybe hiding from the TV isn’t the point of this experiment. So I headed back to the house and cleaned my room and it was definitely the cleanest it has ever been. This put me in a very good mood. The ability to open my door and see a clean room was a relief. As my day progressed if found myself much more productive than I thought I would be or even could be. I got school work done for two days in advance and got all chores done and took my time doing everything. The only thing I later found was the relation to getting everything done.

            Now its Wednesday and I have another busy day, three classes. The biggest problem I ran into was not having anything to do. I was done with all school work for the next couple days, my room was clean, my chores for the week were done. I was bored. I eventually just found myself room hoping and hanging out. But, no lie, that gets old. All the time I had to myself was time I wish I didn’t have. I just sat around. I wasn’t happy anymore because I had nothing to do with myself but sit around and eventually just sleep to pass time. I was not just grumpy.

            Thursday came and people were just annoyed with me. I wasn’t in a good mood and I just fought over stupid things. This was a bad idea. I came to the point where I was trying to improve my mood by doing things that weren’t even for me. I tried to improve my mood by being helpful to everyone. I went room to room asking people if they had anything they needed me to do. I eventually was driving around most my time when I wasn’t in class. The plus to that was I listened to music almost all day. This helped my mood immensely.

            Friday was my last day and I was very excited. I didn’t feel rushed to do anything nor did I feel a need to keep up with a show. I eventually just dint think about watching TV. You probably ask yourself, did I ever turn the TV on? I did not. It’s my fifth day in and I haven’t touched a TV remote after hiding the remotes in my drawer. The point of the experiment is to not turn it on and see the outcome. The outcome was a sense of calmness and not being rushed at all in anything I did. While the experiment was slightly eye opening. I want to go back to my old self. I want to sit around and watch a little TV. I want that sense of relaxation and not having to worry about anything but what Stewie from “Family Guy” was saying.