Is it just me or has television reached an all time low? I have
the privilege of working from home and some days when I rarely step
outside, I surf the channels for something to keep me company.
Is it just me or has television reached an all time low? I have the privilege of working from home and some days when I rarely step outside, I surf the channels for something to keep me company.
There are a lot of daytime talk shows to choose from, but the quality has plummeted to an all-time low. Just exactly how many young girls are out there that who don’t know who the father of their child is?
And why doesn’t someone do a show to investigate the source of the real problem and educate these young ladies so the pregnancies can be avoided? We are paying for it anyway. I tend to think that if we stop glorifying the recklessness of teens having unplanned children, these young girls wouldn’t be so excited about telling their torrid stories just to have their 15 minutes of fame.
Why isn’t there a show to publicize the embarrassment they should be feeling for have so many partners that they don’t even know who the “baby daddy” is? Maybe someone could come up with a show that explains the vicious circle of fatherless children and the emotional issues to which they have doomed their children.
I think it’s really twisted that all of this name calling and chair throwing can be aired for any viewer to watch, but nobody will produce a daytime show teaching sex education.
Why are we drawn to tragedy like rubber-neckers on the highway, contorting ourselves to “see what happened”? Even Rosie O’Donnell is argumentative on her show and that certainly aspires to be a classier show than others. Why is everyone fighting? I used to watch Dr. Phil because he was “changing lives” and not glorifying such things, but finally I stopped watching his show as well because I just can’t watch another divorce.
As soon as I turn on the tv, there it is, conflict. So we switch to Disney, but even the children’s channels are questionable. I’m on the verge of banning “The Suite Life of Zack & Cody” from my son’s viewing because those boys openly and willfully argue with their mother. I’m seeing it rub off on him and I don’t like it. Do you ever sit down and watch what your kids are watching? It’s pretty shocking. My son was watching a cartoon not long ago where the characters were calling each other names like, “stupid” and “dummy” and telling each other “I hate you.” In my house those words are not allowed.
I remember when I was kid we only got two channels, eight and eleven, ABC and NBC. We watched good wholesome family shows like “Wonder Woman” and “The Six Million Dollar Man” with commercials for laundry detergent. My parents didn’t have to sensor what we watched, it was chocolate milk and Smurfs.
The only thing that preserves the umbilical cord attaching my tv to the dish on my roof is having TVO capabilities (or DVR) so we can choose wisely and skip the commercials. However, it remains a mystery to me that with 200 channels to choose from, there is still “nothing good to watch”. So if you call me late in the evening, after the kids have gone to bed and I get the remote control back … I’ll probably be on the edge of my seat wondering if the Alaskan crab boat will pull in a full pot, a half full pot or an empty pot.
Lydia Eden-Irwin was raised in Gilroy. She has three children as part of a blended family. Her column is published each Wednesday. She can be reached at ed*****@*ol.com.
