Monday, October 3, 2011

Drivel

I tried to watch some drivel earlier. I couldn’t. Normally I can, as drivel is one of my favorite things to watch in those rare moments I get to watch TV. I enjoy it because it’s so mind-numbingly stupid; your brain processes literally have to slow down in order to understand it.
It also allows me to think of errant things – those things your life rarely gives you time to think about, for they are really so unimportant that you cannot allocate the much needed space in your otherwise busy day (and I’m qualifying even merely watching paint dry as a busy day). For instance, I tend to wander off and start to think about things like the complexities that make up a system that allows us to qualify this as entertainment. Who controls this system and how far do its hands reach? Are those in control programming us or are we programming them? Who, at the end of the day, when all is said and done, really has the power?
I would like to say it’s not me – and I’m using “me” to mean a lot of us – for I would hope this is not what I would produce if I held the reigns. But then again, in some respects, I do. If the signals for it are beaming down into my house, then I am one more person that is watching, and every person does count when it comes to ratings.
Then I wonder, who else is watching this drivel and why? Do they get the same value out of it that I do? Or are they watching for much different reasons? I know a few people who truly enjoy keeping up with some of these shows, really get into the whole faux-story being told. I suppose we all have our own guilty pleasures, although mine lay in other arenas. Drivel merely allows me to not think about what is in front of me. And not that I’m watching the drivel per se; it is just keeping the latent processes working and focused so the rest can flourish.
But for some reason I couldn’t watch it earlier. Not sure why. I tried 3 or 4 times – I’d walk away then go back, but I just couldn’t stop and get interested. This is odd, since I usually don’t have issues stopping to do nothing. But it did lead me to do something productive, so I suppose my lack of interest in what is usually interesting – my lack of interest in drivel – did serve a purpose. Maybe not a greater purpose, but hey, we take what we can get right? J

1 comment:

  1. Many times when I turn on the television or radio, I get overwhelmed by the meaninglessness of what is before me; it is during those moments, like you, that I ponder what exactly our society has morphed into, and heaven help us, what we are going to become in the future. I get asked what shows I watch or keep up with, and invariably, I have to tell them I don't even know that the particular show they are talking about even exists. Drivel indeed.

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