[alsy]

It has been more than 10 years since I gave up TV. Technically speaking, I have not given up if you take into account that I may (but, usually not) watch a few minutes worth if I am in the kitchen. Which is an open living kitchen/ lounge room. Otherwise I don’t go out of my way, which is in stark contrast to immense saturation 15+ years ago.
I was not aware of contrast (watching/not watching) during the phasing out period. Only many years later I came to realize the differences.

I had alienated myself a bit from what other people were following, and this made socializing a bit harder for me at the time when I was heavily focusing on business. Now I sift through the Internet for news or other information & sometimes entertainment. I choose whether I will look into more of the details and be careful to make up my own mind about it, rather than the puppeteers attempting to mould my mind and therefore, my experience of the world. More often I just glimpse over some of the sensationalism & fear mongering, which I rarely buy into. When I use to watch TV, I was more readily suckered into the fear & sensationalism. I was more reactive, rather than be in control. I did not like how I felt. In my glossing over, I still get an idea on some of what is “supposedly” news, being presented to the public. If I see something on TV now, I am less easily swayed in my mind. I am more neutral and better able to assess possibilities, which I was previously conditioned to “blinker out”.

In the past several years I have watched may be 2 movies a year on average. It is a really strange experience. The day after watching a movie came the stark contrast between watching and not watching. This may sound strange, but its like I am aware of sections of the movie “wired” into or running through my nervous system. In the way I perceive the experience, is like it detracts you from being a conscious creator. (Unless the content is aligned with some specific purpose you wish to bring about) As a human being, I am “Being” something in each moment. What I was “being” was in the experience of the previous days concentration. It was impinging on that moment. Almost like a program running in the sub conscious. Not impossible, but it was harder to be what I wished to be in that moment. If anyone has worked long hours and done something like 14 days straight you will know what its like when it comes to the rest day. That activity is still running though in auto pilot, even though you are not physically doing it.
Looking back to when I use to be a TV zombie, I am aware of some of the content in TV programs use to influence my judgement in life. Which includes political biases, as well as affecting my character and expressions. If I had a strong focus on a particular character in a series, It would have an influence in my being. (If that makes sense)
I use to love cartoons when I was a kid and I watched tons of it. Many years ago now, someone commented that I sounded like one of the cartoon characters, (Not any more I don’t) which happened to be from one of my favorite programs that I heavily watched and loved.

I don’t think TV is necessarily bad. It depends on how you use it and your attitude. Although there seems to be more creativity and variety today on TV, I stopped watching because I came to the conclusion that the majority of TV programming were regurgitations (same story, different faces and places), and so called News/ Current affairs type programs were used mainly by commerce/ politicians and interest groups to shape public views/ opinions.