Television is Stealing your Life

Have you ever thought about how much time you spend watching TV? Recently, I have--and I decided to get concrete about it. Whenever I have free time or am bored, really the only thing that I ever think to do is to fire up Netflix and get cozy on the couch or in bed. Maybe I can blame this on the pandemic--it's just a symptom of being encouraged to keep to yourself!--or maybe, I've just allowed vegging out to become too much of a habit. Either way, I've done the math, and on average, over the past few months I've spent almost two hours a day watching tv. 58 minutes and 45 seconds, to be exact.

58:45!!!

I got that figure from taking the complete running time of every episode of Sex and the City (pretty much all I've been watching) and dividing it by the number of days since I began the series (February 10th). That's a lot! It's not as though I'm not keeping up in my classes, or maintaining a decent social life--if anything, this TV-watching comes at times when one is supposed to be sleeping, but just one more episode feels so good. After all, how else am I supposed to know what becomes of Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha?

I googled it, and apparently the average American spends four hours and sixteen minutes watching TV. This may seem to put me well below average, but for my age range, I'm still on the side of excessive in comparison. The average 18-34 year old spends an hour and thirty-seven minutes watching the tube each day. I know that's less than our elders, but it still seems like a waste to me. Think of all the other things I could be doing with that time! Really, I'm just robbing myself of sleep, and by extension, a better mood and healthier life generally. When I think about my priorities, I certainly rank taking care of myself higher on the list than escaping into fictional sagas. Not to say that escapism can't be a good outlet, but for that to be true, it can't be negatively impacting the rest of your life.

I have a birthday in a few days, and after that point, I think I'll cut TV out. Not entirely, of course--I'm a fan of the Bachelorette and will certainly be tuning in to that this summer, but that's at least limited to once a week... and I also think the occasional movie, or anything watched with a friend is fair game. What I'm looking to eliminate is that knee-jerk reaction to a chunk of free time that drives me to sit around like a zombie for hours whenever I have the chance. Quantifying my TV intake has shown me a place where I can change my life to be more in line with my priorities. What do you have in your life that could use some pruning?