MY ROOTS WITH TELEVISION

Digital Media and Culture

Digital Essay 1

Let’s Talk About Television

In cohesion with the internet and its many platforms, television has the ability to reach mass amounts of people and spread news, trends, culture, entertainment, products and different perspectives. “As technology keeps developing, it brings about great numbers of advantages to the world. Technology creates desires, also fulfilling them, saves labor and provides new opportunities. Moreover, technical artifacts, becoming more complicated, interconnect with culture, art, social institutions and intellectual creations” (Kelly, 2010). But in the age of growing technology and emerging dependence on electronics, too much television can be unhealthy, but some would also argue that no television at all is cutting yourself from a world of knowledge and understanding. Weather it was due to content my parents did not want us to see, or that they did not want us to be reliant on television for entertainment, my parents left cable television from the house until I was around the age of eight.

So what are the repercussions and results if you grow up until the age of pre-teen years without having access to popular television programming? Are you ‘deprived’? Do you lack what others know because you haven’t experienced the multiplicity of what television has to offer? What parental limitations create healthy television habits for future emerging children, teens, and adults?

Our television sat in the living room, usually off, except for the occasional educational Spanish program or ‘one show a day’ for both my sister and I. But growing up, until about middle school, I didn’t notice that television was a growing part of other children lives and not my own. I played outside, climbed the trees, rode my bike, planted apple trees with my sister, played sports, all while oblivious to the growing number of my peers spending their time in front of the television. In these early stages I appreciate my parents not subjecting me to too much television and setting limits. But the lingering question in my mind rings ‘am I obsessed with television now because I did not have it when I was younger?’

Once I transitioned to middle school more and more peers began to speak up about television and the shows they watched. I began to feel like I was missing something that everyone else got to experience more than me. Because I began to have less parent supervision, I started to sneak television time when my mom was not watching or was not home. I wanted to know who SpongeBob and Lizzie McGuire were too! And I was obsessed! This illusion of “real, face-to-face friendships with the performers that was created through watching television shows” is what Marwick would prescribe as parasocial interaction, between the characters I indulged in and myself (Marwick, 2015). But coming home and watching Disney channel, something I never got to see before, became my guilty pleasure, during the time in which I was supposed to be doing homework. I began watching more and more shows that I knew my parents would not approve of, streaming The Secret Life of the American Teenager on YouTube because I could not watch it live around my parents. I found that this entertainment, relaxation, and partial guilt that came from coming home and slumping down to watch TV was invigorating, and let’s face it, so much better than doing homework. From then on, I began to come home and watch television almost everyday after school, going through high school too.

In high school I finally got a television in my room for my 18th birthday. I was so excited. It was a smart TV too so it connected to HBO, Netflix, Xfinity, YouTube, and anything else on Wi-Fi. This is when the rise of Netflix became huge and people began to replace their TV habits with binging Netflix series. Fortunately this time, I was able to keep up with this new ‘trend’ of television because I had Netflix on my TV in my own room. Netflix shows were booming with everyone asking, “Have you seen _______”, or, “Oh my goodness you have to watch ______!” And this time I was actually able to say “Yeah I have seen that! That show is great!” These conversations and similarities between certain people around me became stimulated by the viewing of an episode or by a show on Netflix that everyone was binging. I began to see that television was very much a part of human interaction and conversation.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 1 shows the average amount of teens age 13-17 that watch TV daily

Figure 2 displays the average number of hours from 2014-2016 that adults 18+ spent watching TV per day

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My transition to college only brought more free time to binge shows and watch TV. But college was an academic undertaking and television habits needed to be put on halt to focus on school. Even to this day I think many of us struggle to balance work, social, and electronic life, I know I still continue to. I’ve found that I have to set limitations for myself on my devices that I stream shows from, and learn to prioritise interpersonal connection and hard work in other areas of life. I now strive to be more productive with my television habits, watching documentaries and educational programming that brings me some knowledge or opens my eyes to a subject I may have never looked into.

I could say that I believe my television habits today were due to the lack of television I experienced as a child, but I also appreciate the limitations my parents set for me and I think I would do the same with my children. Further, I am now a Media and Film major, so this late passion for television and media did not hinder where I plan to take my future and career. So in the end, I think television is about what you make it. Continuing to learn to balance a healthy amount of television as well as healthy or educational content is very important in keeping me from becoming a television binging couch potato.

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