Your Time is too important to spend it on mindless TV Shows

We are about to start for our flight back to India after this intense and beautiful week in Germany. Unfortunately Apra has caught a cold and is coughing and sneezing with a little fever as well. Nevertheless we are confident that we will make it to India smoothly. Last time, she was asleep nearly the whole flight long – and me with her. In the meantime, Ramona considered using the TV on the flight but finally didn’t feel like it. When I woke up, we talked a bit about TVs, how much of a habit it can become and why I normally see it as a rather bad thing. Now here is my list of five reasons why you should not watch TV:

1. Watching TV wastes a lot of your time!

It is just logical: you could use the time that you sit in front of that machine for so many other things: work, clean, tidy up or – if you actually sit there because you had enough of all these activities – get social with friends, be creative, paint, play, take a bath or spoil yourself in any other way. Sitting in front of the TV doesn’t bring you anything. It just makes time go by. Two or three hours is nothing, once you get involved mentally with what you are watching! If you really have too much time, go for it. If not, just keep that thing off!

2. You could use it for learning something – but you don’t!

Let’s be honest about this one: yes, TV is a great thing to see the world. You have the possibility to watch documentaries, to get to know more about this world. You can watch programs to get an insight in other cultures, follow debates on important topics or find out how the things work that you use every day. You could but usually, maybe in 90% of all cases, you don’t.

You use the TV for mindless entertainment. That’s it. So don’t tell me, when you are watching the latest soap opera or a reality TV show, that you are broadening your horizon! You just want to let television wash over you without any challenge for your brain!

3. It can make you aggressive, and your kids even more!

This point is nothing new and I know many people don’t believe in it. I do however, especially when it is about your kids! You show them that you watch TV, they do it, too. And today’s shows, even those made for children, are nearly always so full of violence that I would never want my girl to watch it! They believe what they see is how it should be, that people are hitting each other, fighting and just being full of violence! Combined with the lack of movement and exercise which is a normal consequence of too much TV, this stirs the same aggressive behavior in children – and in yourself!

I have some more ideas – but more about that tomorrow!