And another thing.
Sep. 21st, 2005 01:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
featherynscaleOften 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.
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.
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no subject
Date: 2005-09-21 10:00 pm (UTC)I would have to say that this is a classic reaction to any item that a person has trouble imagining what their life would be like if it was gone.
Adam's For Example:
I do not watch television because it moves so much slower than my mind normally does. And I really hate the feeling of 'Down-shifting' to that speed. It ruins my concentration for other matters.
I think I detected this when I had the flu, and TV was acceptable to me, as I was already moving that slow.
***YMMV: Your Mind May Vary.
========
I think I would have the same reaction to someone who said,
"i don't read books"
or
"I don't use the internet."
(If they had access to either medium.)
And everyone has free access to books in my lil' Lawrencian universe.
Library cards
Date: 2005-09-21 10:17 pm (UTC)I recently found my KSU library card from when I was like 13... I don't think they'll let me check things out on it anymore. It doesn't even have a proper bar code, just a sequence of numbers. How quaint.