Who am I, a guy that hasn't owned a television in over 15 years, to tell y'all how to handle your television watching habits. eh? Don't answer that and listen to the story ...
In the most recent episode of one of my favorite podcasts the guy started off by saying that he and his family had "cleared some of the backlog on their DVR" and watched some particular TV show he wanted to talk about on the podcast. It doesn't matter what show it was or what he had to say, because I stopped at "cleared some of the backlog" from the DVR and had a thought come into my head like a bolt out of the sky.
That's a fallacy .. just because your DVR recorded some TV shows for you doesn't mean you're then obligated to watch those shows.
You can treat the DVR as if it creates obligations for you. It's similar to how if someone makes you some tea, brings it to you, along with a couple cookies, and even though you don't really want the tea, don't want to eat some cookies, common courtesy has you drink the tea and eat the cookies anyway. In other words, the DVR dutifully performed a service and recorded some TV shows for you, so is it your common courtesy to watch the TV shows?
Or you can treat the DVR as offering a possibility of things to do, but that it doesn't create any obligations of something you have to do.
Part of the reason I don't even own a television is that I turn into a zombie whenever it's on. I don't like being zombified by the machines, and my way of keeping from being a television zombie is to simply not have it in my life.
I'm sure that television, when kept at the proper dosage, in proper balance with a healthy lifestyle, can be a positive benefit to your life. It simply seems to me that someone who "clears backlog" out of their DVR isn't keeping a healthy balance around their television watching in that it sounds like they see the DVR as having created an obligation to watch everything it recorded. Granted, I could of course be reading too much into what he said, but I'm also certain that this is true for some people in their relationship with their DVR.
In the most recent episode of one of my favorite podcasts the guy started off by saying that he and his family had "cleared some of the backlog on their DVR" and watched some particular TV show he wanted to talk about on the podcast. It doesn't matter what show it was or what he had to say, because I stopped at "cleared some of the backlog" from the DVR and had a thought come into my head like a bolt out of the sky.
That's a fallacy .. just because your DVR recorded some TV shows for you doesn't mean you're then obligated to watch those shows.
You can treat the DVR as if it creates obligations for you. It's similar to how if someone makes you some tea, brings it to you, along with a couple cookies, and even though you don't really want the tea, don't want to eat some cookies, common courtesy has you drink the tea and eat the cookies anyway. In other words, the DVR dutifully performed a service and recorded some TV shows for you, so is it your common courtesy to watch the TV shows?
Or you can treat the DVR as offering a possibility of things to do, but that it doesn't create any obligations of something you have to do.
Part of the reason I don't even own a television is that I turn into a zombie whenever it's on. I don't like being zombified by the machines, and my way of keeping from being a television zombie is to simply not have it in my life.
I'm sure that television, when kept at the proper dosage, in proper balance with a healthy lifestyle, can be a positive benefit to your life. It simply seems to me that someone who "clears backlog" out of their DVR isn't keeping a healthy balance around their television watching in that it sounds like they see the DVR as having created an obligation to watch everything it recorded. Granted, I could of course be reading too much into what he said, but I'm also certain that this is true for some people in their relationship with their DVR.
No comments:
Post a Comment