Gee, most of us seem to be poo-pooing Tim's wonderful idea. It would be great to not watch tv for a week, or at least for less time than we do. Tonight we'll only watch an hour, last night it was two hours, well, minus all the commercials, of course
IMO, tv fulfills some very important human needs for many people, including myself. Husband's immediate family are all dead, my family is not close. We communicate with others at work and in our community, but there is still something wonderful about tv. We choose what comes into our homes if we use tv wisely and for our personal needs. There are storie lines and characters on particular tv shows that we identify with and can thereby learn more about ourselves and the world around us if that is our goal. And we can discuss with others with similar tv interests what we have learned. Or, we can jsut gossip about stuff. What the heck, everyone is different.
TV is almost like sitting around the primordial fire after a big hunt where the mundane or the supremely important issues are shared, if we choose our tv wisely.
But we do not always have to choose wisely. There is nothing wrong in our ever increasing fast paced world to just sit in front of the tube and veg for awhile, no matter what inane thing may be on.
Anyway, Tim, it's good you brought up the subject. If we weren't all defending our choices to watch tv, we might actually find some food for thought in your post.