Hey all, great thread.
I used to argue against television as an evangelical christian (which I was). I'd tell people why I thought some people (including myself) had a sort of idol-worshipper dynamic with their TV sets. I'd mention how most of us have the TV as the main focal point of our living rooms, where we all gather round and sit at it's feet, ready to swallow whatever it fed us.
I still think TV is bad, but for additional, and somewhat different reasons.
Though I haven't read the book I am about to mention, what I've read about it makes me want to suggest it to all of you. It's called
Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television and it's written by a former ad exec named Jerry Mander.
Mander's main point is that TV, like all technology, is not neutral. TV is not as good, or as bad, as the program it is currently showing. It is just inherantly bad.
I'll leave the reasons for this conclusion of Manders up to you to explore, should you choose.
A summary of some of the arguments: Amazon page for the book