TV Rots Your Brain

Okay, so I've always been a bit of a television fan myself, and I admittedly watched way too much of it as a child. I didn't have cable, so not only did I watch a lot of TV, but I watched a lot of really bad TV. Unfortunately, it is a habit that has stuck with me. Having watched several hours of television every day for most of my 26 and 3/4 years of life, I have seen a lot of television programming, both good and bad. I know that these shows have influenced my thinking in many ways, but until the last week and a half or so I didn't realize how much the stuff in between the programming has influenced me. You know what I mean: COMMERCIALS.

So, on Mother's Day I was in the car with my mother (novel idea). We were heading home and I was getting hungry. We had swung by Dairy Queen for our Mother's Day lunch (pitiful, I know), so I jokingly asked, "What's for dinner?" The answer came to me immediately: Beef. Okay, so the cattle ranchers' association or whatever was successful in their advertising campaign. Big deal.

Until later that night. I was trying to be a good daughter, so I took out the kitchen garbage. I noticed that my mom had used a Hallmark bag for a garbage can liner. I looked at the bag; I looked at the garbage. Can you guess what I thought? That's right, "When you care enough to send the very best." Now this was good for a private laugh, but coming so closely behind the other advertising connection it was a little disturbing. It made me wonder how much all those commercials have really influenced my thinking.

So anyway, other stuff happened and a week passed with no more notable taglines running through my head. Until I went to my Life Group last night. We were talking about magic, and how sometimes what God does seems magical. Somebody was sharing a thought and said something along the lines of, "It was just magically..." followed by a brief pause as he tried to think of the right word. And then, into the silence, three people said, "Delicious!" followed by many groans and giggles.


I had been thinking it in my head, but am quite proud to say that I didn't say it out loud. I guess I shouldn't be too proud, since it was probably just the fact that my mental/verbal filter was very firmly in place after my earlier lapse. It was not at all related to advertising, but still funny enough to mention here. My Life Group leader had given the story of Noah's Ark as an example of a "magical" event in the Bible. To which I whispered (obviously not quietly enough), "Not if you were in the water!" At first there was a moment of shocked disbelief at my irreverence, then a great deal of laughter. It was rather hard to refocus the group after that, and my embarrassment over that is why I was able to refrain from adding the "delicious" where it so clearly belonged. But I digress.

Anyway, the commercials coming so readily to my brain have made me very aware of how much TV I watch. I have already been working on that lately, but these latest events helped to stiffen my resolve. Well, that AND my increasing joy in seeing things blow up (thank you, Kiefer and all you people at 24!). As an educator, I am familiar with some recent studies on television watching and can see how too much of it affects kids. It was a little unnerving to see the effects so clearly in my own life. Which brings me to my main point:

TV rots your brain. Read a book!