Here Comes Treble: The Trouble With Television
...characters are intimately defined; colours, actions, locations, voices, sound and improbable background music are imposed on the passive audience. The imagination and memory is not stimulated. We are only required to receive what is presented. One day, maybe someone will invent a way of synthesising and broadcasting smell and taste, then the last vestige of creative imagination will be redundant...
Isabel Bradley and her husband Leon lead full, useful and satisfying lives - and they don't own a television set.
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At a recent dinner party, we mentioned that we don’t own a television set. This caused a stunned silence, followed by a babble of questions:
“Don’t you miss it?”
“What do you do without television?”
“How do you keep up with world affairs?”
Our answers came easily:
We don’t miss TV.
We read, we attend concerts, theatre, ballet, and occasionally go to the movies. We participate in rehearsals and club meetings. Leon runs and I go to the gym. We serve on committees, visit friends and family, and entertain at home.
Every dreadful occurrence is soon made known to us by friends who delight in imparting gory details. We listen to carefully selected radio channels, hearing important news items without being assaulted by the ghastly images on television screens and newspapers’ front pages.
It was recently reported by an American neurologist that one’s brain, while watching ‘the box’, is less active than when one is sleeping. Whether or not this report is true, it makes sense.
During sleep, the brain processes activities of the day, using imagination and knowledge to create dreams which help one to review emotions and experiences.
Watching television, one only has to use a thumb to change channel or control the volume. Everything else is fed to one via the eyes and the ears. No other senses are stimulated. While watching a programme, characters are intimately defined; colours, actions, locations, voices, sound and improbable background music are imposed on the passive audience. The imagination and memory is not stimulated. We are only required to receive what is presented. One day, maybe someone will invent a way of synthesising and broadcasting smell and taste, then the last vestige of creative imagination will be redundant.
Listening to a radio play or reading a book, we create vivid images. We all need to use our imaginations.
Man has a morbid fascination with horror, crime, war, disease, and disaster. These are all negative and traumatic. Most people agree that positive reporting by the media would be preferable, creating optimism and hope. However, bad news sells, providing a living for millions.
Television is an increasing part of life; it is now possible to watch it on mobile phones.
We all have the right to switch off, or not to watch.
Until next week, “here comes Treble!”
THE END
By Isabel Bradley
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