End of Week Post Oct. 3

In class this week we discussed the idea of “the cult of the new” and addressed the specific question of what would happen if television never had existed. I have weighed the pros and cons to this debate in the following days and I believe that a lack of television would be beneficial, more than detrimental. In my house we do not have cable. When my younger sister was four years old my family noticed that she had an unusual relationship with television. Not only did she prefer to watch television then entertain herself, but also preferred it to playing with friends. When other kids did come over, they watched movies, talked about television shows/ stars, and played games based on television. When I babysat this summer I realized that the children I watched had a difficult time using their imagination. They could not entertain themselves, and when I introduced new games or ideas that I used to do as a kid they were shocked/ impressed. It is sad watching the youth of today struggle to find something to amuse them without technological stimulus. This revelation gores hand and hand with the concept of hyper stimulation. There is so many stimuli in today’s society that the silence, or lack of it is almost impossible to bear. As a solution to this problem my family completely eliminated television. At first it was really hard, for not only my sister but the entire family, but now I do not know when I would have time to watch television. It is weird coming back to school, with the option of watching shows and such because it was not a priority in my life over the summer. One family I babysat for had the same thoughts about television and also banned it from their home. Their three children were noticeably more creative and had an easier time entertaining themselves then other children with the option of watching television. Though not having a TV made it hard to connect with the news and so forth, newspapers and the internet give you the same information more efficiently. I think overall, a lack of television improved my family individually and as a whole and I strongly recommend it.