Media Experiment #3

When I moved to college, my family made the decision that I would not be taking a TV with me. “It’ll be distracting” was the main complaint from my parents. Part of me was dreading it, what was I going to do when I got bored. It was another comfort from home that I felt I was. I grew up in a house that had a TV in essentially every room, and suddenly was going to have zero. Yet after almost two years without one, I don’t feel like I’m missing anything.

TV used to be the first thing I would be drawn to after coming home from school when I was younger; I’d set my book bag down and settle in on the sofa and watch hours of TV. With the lack of it in my dorm, I don’t feel like much is forgotten. I realized it’s because when I used TV, it was simply background noise, something to focus on in my boredom. Rarely (if ever) was I engaged completely. There was the occasional episode of my favorite show that I would set out to watch, but other than that it was channel flipping and barely listening.

Even now when I go to public places and a TV is on, it is not the focus of my attention. I’ll sit in the restaurant and maybe catch a word that is said here or there. But rarely do I focus on the screen. TV has become a nonexistent entity for me. It just serves as a space filler, or better yet, noise filler. It fills the places that seem to not want any silence- restaurant, bars, peoples homes. Yet I’ve noticed that as time has gone on I’ve found more ways for that space to be filled, such as portable music devices, that can fill noise wherever I go.

Film on the other hand, is a more “set out” I make a plan to go to a film, at a certain time, at a certain place, and it is done at my decision. TV often bombards me when I do not want it to. I don’t decide to go to a restaurant because I know they’re will be a TV present, I go to eat a meal. If I want TV to find me, I’ll go to the internet. But it seems to be that the TV as it exists now is becoming almost a nuisance for me. After living without it, I’ve realized that in my life it is completely unnecessary. I almost find it cumbersome when I walk into a place and a TV is on, as if I am forced to now be engaged with it, though it was not my original intention. Where TV use to be something exclusively for the home, it has completely shifted roles into something that is not only not needed, but something uninvited.

When I watch TV now, I find myself annoyed by the number of commercials, or that I can’t find the exact show I want. Where film and online TV shows can be found to cater my exact needs and wants, TV has it’s own agenda that I have to adapt to. There seems to be no control over TV, which I find increasingly frustrating. TV is no longer a leisure activity but something I wish to escape from.

What was once defined by McLuhan as a "cold" media, has now become "hot." I don't interact with TV in public because it's always around. I don't think about doing it, just like I don't think about breathing. I think this is because television has lost most of it's power. Raymond Williams argues in his chapter "The Technology and the Society" that television has "altered our world" and that it has the power to persuade a group of people. Hearing these things now, it almost seems humors. I think of the TVs I see in bars, and how they serve as simple background noise; another flashy piece of decor in the corner of the bar. TV doesn't have the power to change a society anymore, and whatever it "altered" it's noticeable anymore. TV is just part of the everyday, because it's out with us everyday.