It’s been almost 10 years from this day since I’ve watched television for any great length of time, but I watch films frequently. Why? Because I feel like television has mind-controlling powers. Ok, maybe that was a bit exaggerated, but it seems to have a great influence over a person’s opinions about almost everything.

There is a philosophy by which I live, saying “Criticize everything”. Being critical of what you hear, read and witness strengthens your personal tenets to the point at which you can have a firm stand on your beliefs and opinions.

There are many things that I have against the device called Television. It is a very large reason why children don’t play outside anymore. It seems to determine the gateways to society, at least to be a part of the masses. It tells people that they are informed about what they need to know about the world, giving very biased ‘facts’ to keep the people ‘informed’. When I admit to others that I do not watch it, they are usually appalled, saying “That’s not possible” or “How can that be?” I’m usually asked how I stay informed.

Informed about what, in particular?

For the day’s weather, I usually look at the clouds, if there are any, in the sky. Knowing the different types of clouds, coupled with a basic sense of how much moisture is in the air, can give you a good understanding of what the weather holds for you. Depending on your personal skill with this, you can give yourself up to two days worth of forecasting. If I need an extended forecast, I’ll check the farmer’s almanac website. Even without satellites and the like, they seem to come up with a better forecast than your local weather channel. Plus, I don’t have to watch commercials and the ‘weatherman’ going on about areas which are of no consequence to me.

As for politics, logging in to MySpace and going to Ron Paul’s website or to Fox’s internet-based “Freedom Watch” is my way of staying informed. The internet is a vast sea of information that is quick to travel, yet returning the critical thinking back into the process of gratification. If you want to see the latest debate or conference, sites like YouTube are excellent sources for these, minus the accompanied commercials.

For visual entertainment, outside of  books, hobbies or writings, there are films. I’ve said many times on this website that I very much enjoy a good story. If there’s a movie that is currently in cinemas which I’d like to see, I usually walk into it blindly, allowing no room for biases and expectations. If I’m browsing films at Blockbuster, it takes little more than a predetermined idea of what I want to see or reading the copy on the back of the case in a circumstance which I don’t arrive with anything in mind. As with this, there are no commercials, save for ‘previews’ of films that are in varied states of arrival to theaters or rental stores.

Now that I have presented my methods of avoiding television, I’d like to state that there is little else that this medium of ‘keeping informed’ has for me. Reality shows, what’s hot in Hollywood or the music industry, what to buy and the like are mindless, poorly chosen forms of entertainment, including “The News”. The majority of Americans subscribing to these additional space fillers within the visual media curriculum shows me that people have very little going on in their own lives that is of interest or in any way stimulating to them, which is a huge concern of mine. If people have become so indifferent to the adventure that Life provides enough to sit on a couch and bide their time with doing this, what has Life become? A waiting room?