The black box has overtaken the house. The screens are bigger. Rooms are built simply to house the apparatus.
There’s a lot of talk of how bad it is, but is it an evil, mind altering instrument of destruction? Or is a window to the world? A tool which can teach and inform, entertain and amuse?
We probably watch too much TV in my house. Gosh, when I decided to “write” the photo-a-day prompts I didn’t realise I was going to have to lay bare ALL my bad habits. First the no breakfast thing, now the too much TV watching!
I’m clinging to line from Chrystina Noel’s blog yesterday
I watched television for probably 6 hours a day growing up. I still did Girl Scouts. I played sports. I got straight A’s. And you know what – I turned out fine.
She’s right. She did turn out fine. She’s 23, an architectural engineer, with a good job, she’s kind, interested in the world, loves pretty things and organising parties. I’d be more than happy if my girls turned out like her!
I suppose it is a question of balance isn’t it? Her parents didn’t have to stress over the TV because she was doing OK in other areas?
So as a typical, overparenting Generation Xer maybe I can take the “too much TV” worry off the table and replace it with some other stress inducing issue over my kids. As you do.
On Sunday night TV is a family thing, Merlin followed by Modern Family then (sometimes) House Husbands. We love them all.
In another twenty years when my kids are making Pinterest Boards (or whatever the hell the method of communication is then) for “Generation Z” I’m pretty sure Merlin and Modern Family will make an appearance.
That’s the thing about TV isn’t it? It drives the pop culture of the day. Despite the increasing presence of the digital world TV still is the way most of the ordinary folk get their entertainment.
We love seeing ourselves represented on the screen, I’m certain the writers of Modern Family have my house bugged!
Perhaps TV plays a role in reflecting changing attitudes as well, both Modern Family and House Husbands feature a gay couple raising a family. Considering the debates taking place at a political level over gay marriage it’s interesting to see the general population is laughing, crying, sympathising, accepting these TV characters without turning off their televisions in horror.
Are you a TV watching family?
We fell out of the habit of watching TV when we didn’t have an antennae for a year. Oh, we still watched TV, but usually iview or movies. Now it’s hard to get back into remembering what nights stuff is on. The youngest watches cartoons on ABC until 8am. Oldest gets up too late. No TV for the kids in the arvo, aside from the occasional Friday night TV picnic dinner. I hired a DVD for them on the weekend as a treat, Arietty. Nights husband and I stick to favorites: Downton, Lowdown, Greys … The only thing we all watch together is Doctor Who!
Wow you are really good. Perhaps we would achieve a lot more if we didn’t watch so much tv.
It took me until now to finally catch up with this post – glad to have made the blog. It’s funny, after I saw you posted this, I immediately texted my sister to say “we easily watched 6 hours of tv a day as kids, right?” – just to make sure I wasn’t lying to you. She got back to me pretty quickly with a “yes”. I’d say we both turned out okay – as you mentioned above (thanks for that by the way) – although I do make a few more tv references from the 90s than your normal young adult – oh well. Also. I love Modern Family. Every week I have an internal debate with myself about which character I love the most – sign of a good sitcom right there. Enjoy!