And another thing.

[featherynscale]

Often it comes to pass at work or in other social situations that somebody asks me if I saw [insert name of show] last night. I tell them, "No, I don't watch television."

Sometimes this leads people to look shifty and say things like "I don't watch much either, just [these shows]." Sometimes it leads people to turn up their noses and say things like, "Well, aren't you special?". Other negative reactions have been reported, but are less common.

Maybe I'm not being clear enough. I don't watch television. I say this so that people will know that if they ask me about shows, I'm probably not going to be able to provide any response at all, because I will have invariably not seen the thing. I don't watch television. I don't care for enough shows to bother. This is not because I'm inherently a better person than tv-viewers. I'm not advancing the point that people shouldn't watch television. I just don't enjoy it, myself. I also don't enjoy jogging, but nobody seems to get too offended or guilty about that, even joggers.

Why is it so often an attack if I say "I don't watch television" and hardly ever an attack if I say "I don't jog"? To me these are roughly equivalent statements.

Comments

[saffronhare.livejournal.com]

It probably strikes a nerve, so they strike back. But you already knew that. People know damn well that the vast majority of stuff on TV is vacuous at best. Hearing somebody say that they're not at the mercy of television, or much of pop culture otherwise, is alarming. They can't predict what you're going to think about anything, except for the uncomfortable knowledge that your thoughts are likely to be different from theirs (since you generally refuse to be spoonfed). Your lack of brainwashing is threatening to people who offer themselves as willing victims of everything their TVs inflict.

There are comfortable and thoughtful places to exist at many places between those two extremes, but most folks can only think in either-or terms. Me, I love me some CSI anytime I can get it. :) ::shrug::

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

I'm totally at the mercy of the Internet. Sort of. I can stop any time I want.

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

Unless you come within 15 feet of a networked computer... why DID you come upstairs last night at 3am, again, exactly?

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Actually, I was looking for sex and a glass of water. Email only happened because I was up there already.
Anyway, it wasn't even vaguely 3 a.m. It was more like 12:15.

Ahhh.

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

For some reason, this morning I thought you'd said you came upstairs to go to the bathroom, which seemed vaguely unlikely since your own got fixed a month ago.

Jibe rescinded. Sex not rescinded.

[adammaker.livejournal.com]

I can see some people hearing:
"I'm a freethinker, you 're a drone."

Interesting.
Mostly I skip TV cause it cuts into my Reading time.
Mostly...