May 10, 2024

BY MIKE VIELMA

Technology is evolving so quickly that it is almost impossible to stay current with the latest gadgets.

However, technology does not always help us. In the past week I have encountered two people who said they watch, and keep up-to-date on, approximately eight television shows. Now, these shows aren’t part of a series suh as The Simpsons or Family Guy where a viewer could watch any episode and quickly learn the story line.

No, these shows have in-depth plots that would be too complicated for most viewers to understand if they started watching halfway through a season or episode.

These are mostly hour-long programs that require focus and concentration to get all of the content from each scene and episode. So, that’s about an hour a night, every night, spent in front of the TV just to get a Grey’s Anatomy fix.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I don’t even have enough time to have dinner between projects, work and social life, let alone have an hour to waste melting in front of the boob tube.

There are people who scramble to watch every one of their shows that they miss or they willingly forego other aspects of their lives just so they can watch TV. Forgetting to pick up your kid from hockey practice because Flashpoint was on is unacceptable.

There is no need to get a 56 per cent on your final paper because you were trying to finish it while watching the season finale of Gossip Girl.

What is the point of watching all this TV?

Sure, it’s entertaining and on a rainy day it is quite acceptable. But besides that, you gain nothing from it besides a current topic to talk about on Monday morning with all your classmates or co-workers.

Whatever happened to getting some good old exercise or spending time enjoying the fresh air with your friends?

That has all shifted to staring at an over-size screen with all your friends around it. Their eyes are either glazed over from too much TV exposure, or they are squinting to see who the latest text is from, probably to discuss the latest scene in Vampire Diaries.

There is so much variety on TV that it is almost impossible to find someone who doesn’t have a favourite show. There are the thrillers and crime shows, the romantic and corny shows and even the odd and weird ones.

There are so many things in this world to experience, there shouldn’t be enough time for TV, not the other way around.