What Happened When I Quit Watching TV

Many of us grew up watching television in a schedule. You remember those days when you can only watch a cartoon at a certain time of the day and a certain day of the week because that’s when the TV studios have children programs. People gathered around one TV set to watch sporting competitions like soccer as a group. There was no cable TV, no YouTube, no Netflix and the rest. Life was really simple and people were able to connect in person. Many families enjoyed engaging in different activities together and had more time for telling stories. Children played more outside and made friends easily.

PEOPLE NOW STAY INDOORS MORE TO WATCH THE SQUARE BOX

Today, streets in many residential areas are usually quiet with blue screens flashing out of windows. Once, you come back from work, the next thing is to pick up that little rectangular thing called TV remote. You switch on the TV to see what’s going on. Latest program showing or you sit down to watch your recorded programs on your PVR Decoder. It’s a good thing to watch TV. It’s also a bad thing to watch too much of it. My son brought home a book some time ago with the title “A Boy Who Got Square Eyes from Watching TV”. This book discouraged kids from sitting too much in front of the TV. That got me thinking.

Growing up, my parents decided not to buy a television. According to my mum, she didn’t want her children’s brains to rot. This idea made me think our parents hated us. We would sneak out to go watch programs in neighbours homes. We would watch “Willi Willi” and come home panicking. Every fly and moth scared us. Sleep disappeared from our eyes. I remember one night after watching “Lady Koi Koi”, I and my siblings could not sleep. One by one, my younger ones slept off. I was super scared and had to wake them up to wait for me. Why would they wait for me? So my own sleep could come (as if it was on a journey).

SHORT STORY OF MY PAST “TEEVEEHOLIC” LIFE

Photo credit: BBC (A scene from Mission Impossible)

Photo credit: ZeeTV (Bollywood Movie)

Photo Credit: Pulse.ng (Nollywood Movie)

As an adult, I wanted to catch up with my lost TV watching time as a child. Any free time I had was spent watching TV. I could watch Nollywood, Hollywood, Bollywood movies from morning until something else called my attention. Hey, Keeping Up With the Kardashian ate me up until I hated the show.

I ate in front of the TV. My food got burnt on the stove many times. How terrible.

One day after my pepper soup burned while I was watching TV, I decided to quit. I tried to recount what I had gained from sitting in front of this square box?

Here is a list of valuable skills I picked from watching TV like a crazy person:

• • ★ Waste the time I’m supposed to use to learn new skills or even get good exercise and sleep by fixing my eyes on the box

• • ★How to burn my food

• • ★How to let my brain rot away by watching the actions and lives of these movie stars thinking that all their smiles and portrayed happy lives were real. Complete fake, Haba!!

• • ★How to speak some Punjabi and Hindi from Bollywood movies

• • ★How to be cool around friends when movies become a line of discussion (how does that even help my life).

• • ★Learned the names of all the actors and actresses in the movie industry (local and international)

• ★ Felt very bad because I did not have as many beautiful clothes and shoes like the ones I saw on those shows (I didn’t know most of them were just for the scenes)

WHY I QUIT

I had to stop after auditing my Profit and Loss on the business of watching television. The following facts became clearer to me after my audit:

• • ✤ People, who make movies don’t watch as much movie as you do unless they are reviewing or studying their own work?

• • ✤ TV News is just Bad News.

• • ✤ 2013 Harvard study showed that men who watch TV for 20 hours a week have a sperm count that is a massive 44% lower than men who do not watch?

• • ✤ It reduces your cognitive skills and mental health

• • ✤ Time spent watching TV can be channelled to learning new things and physically connecting with people

• • ✤ You could develop blood clots by sitting for a long time while watching TV because you hardly move your body

• • ✤ Children become aggressive when you stop them from watching their programs or switch off the TV

• • ✤ My children learn from watching my activities so I didn’t want to teach them terrible habits like excessive “TVing”.

• • ✤ TV programs do not engage the brains as much as physical activities and gaming for children

• • ✤ Some people start believing the images portrayed in these movies ( For example, some Americans think that Africans live on trees or in the jungle because of the movie “Tarzan”

• • ✤Lost my self-discipline because the movies were now controlling me because I couldn’t stop watching

• • ✤ Ah, I added much more weight than necessary because my exercise time dropped

• • ✤Things had to wait for me to finish one episode or part of a movie or a series

• ✤News on TV made me have very negative ideas about people from certain places from stories in the news. All I heard was war, bombing, death, disaster, bad stufffffffffff!!!!

I QUIT WATCHING TV FOR 1 YEAR. HERE’S WHAT HAPPENED

I Read More Books

In an effort to replace the TV time and also get entertained, I bought and borrowed more books. I even discovered audio books I could listen to during my commute or just lying down on my bed. This improved my language and grammatical skills.

I Learned New Skills

When TV was no longer part of my everyday activity, I began to learn how to cook better meals in very creative ways because my mind and body were present in the kitchen. I had more time to think. It was during my first year of “TVlessness” that I learned to code. I learned to program in Java, Python, R Studio, Swift, and even switched my career from the oil and gas industry to the technology industry.

I Started Online Business

Because I have more time in my hands, Have been able to create and grow my online business and freelance work. I run this website and sell different products on many online platforms. (BTW I have functional laptop backpacks ranging from anti-theft and solar-charging backpacks to backpacks for nursing mothers here at myspecialbackpack.com).

I Exercised More

Before I stopped watching TV, I saw no reason to leave the house to go for a run. Climbing a few steps in my house from the living room to the bedroom upstairs made me pant like someone being chased by a masquerade. I was not fit at all. But when I quit TVing, I started running. I got the Nike Run Club app and signed up for 3 times per week running schedule. I couldn’t run for up to 3 minutes in my first week. It was hard but with consistency and sticking to my running schedule, today I can run for 5 kilometres non-stop. I am fit as a fit person can be. My energy level has improved and I can now play tennis with my kids and husband without getting tired easily.

My Health is on Top Gear

I can’t remember the last time I had joint pains. Stress no longer bothers me because my running schedule has helped me sleep better and have excellent headspace. My mind is no longer filled with all the negativity from news and fake lives from movies.

We always complain that we have no time to do certain things but fail to recognize some other time-consuming activities in our daily lives that harm our mental health, relationships, and personal well being.

I urge you to try going TV-free and share what happens to your life. You could start with “No TV for 1 Week or 1 month or 3 Months”. You’ll see you won’t miss anything but rather gain more.

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