Time and T.V.

Sometimes after a long, stressful day it’s so incredibly easy to plonk down on the couch with a remote and watch T.V.. A few minutes can easily turn into hours and before you know it the night has evaporated and it’s time for bed. At least back in the day when T.V. was first invented someone had to get up and change the channel… now we have remotes and it’s become the ultimate lazy experience. I’ll be honest, I do enjoy watching T.V. and DVDs and Netflix. But, I also sometimes feel like T.V. robs me of my time. Yes it steals my time. At the end of a night I frequently look back and think I wish I’d done X, Y, Z like I wanted to but there wasn’t time. Well, there was time but I wasted it.

There are so many other activities I enjoy other than T.V.. Writing this blog for example has helped take me away from a lot of my normal T.V. time and that’s purely because otherwise there wouldn’t be enough hours in the day to write anything. Reading is also another one of my interests, but yet I find I don’t have enough time but I also deem that to be my own fault. If I had less screen time in general, there would be plenty of hours in the day. T.V. is just an easy answer.

Watching T.V. has become so ingrained within our society that sometimes it’s hard to ignore it completely. In social situations, T.V. is prevalent and often appears necessary. I had dinner with a group of my good friends recently and what everyone is currently watching on Netflix was a real hot topic of conversation. If I didn’t watch anything at all, I would have found myself left out of this conversation entirely. How would I feel about that? I think I’d care and I know I shouldn’t… but I do. However what is important to me in this situation is limiting my time in front of electronic screens for other things as opposed to not watching anything at all.

Doing activities other than sitting in from of a big screen gives me a real sense of achievement and believe it or not, in social settings it gives me something else to talk about. It broadens the topics of conversation as other talking points and other aspects of life are more frequently being thrown into the mix as opposed to what’s currently trending on Netflix or Stan.

I also find a lot of screen time is also forgettable, but a lot of other activities I remember far more clearly such as going for evening walks, writing and playing board games with my family. These are the sorts of moments that I remember and are memorable. Whereas if you asked me what I watched on T.V. a month ago on a Sunday night I probably couldn’t tell you. But I know that I played a game of Monopoly (and no I didn’t win in case you were wondering).

I find it important to take stock of screen time and be conscious of how much of my time it’s taking up. Being mindful of situations such as things makes all the difference. Having a level of awareness means I can enact change for the better.

What are your preferred activities to screen time?