Screens, Everywhere

Jet Blue used to be a fun treat, before its prices stopped being a bargain and before the (three then four then seven dollar) bus from downtown Los Angeles to LAX was invented and Long Beach seemed more ridiculous and arduous a trek than ever.  Especially since I was then TV-free, I liked having a few hours tethered to my own personal TV set while I whiled away the trek from coast to coast; when I first moved west, I would settle in on trips back east and eagerly scour the commercials to see how many downtown LA backdrops I could spot in the scenes. 

Now, I just fly the cheapest ticket I can get, and this time, with cable TV installed in my place, I intentionally didn’t bring enough reading material for the plane because, well, I figured since I was leaving my new utility for five days, perhaps I should attempt to keep watching from the friendly skies.  If only for the purpose of this blog.  They have those TV shows on there, anyway, so I figured it would count for something other than just movies.  I eagerly plugged my headset in to see this show called Community, because who isn’t craving more of that?  Every single person I know is, in some form or fashion.

When I realized Community was a modifier for the word "college," that was cool, too, because who wouldn’t be interested in a show about an educational institution?  Especially since I could tell immediately that it would be Loveboat-style, you know, the kind where several characters develop over time.  Plus, Chevy Chase is so charming, even now (especially now) that he’s all gray.

It took me about three minutes (I didn’t clock it, cause I turned off my beloved iPhone at the behest of the flight attendant) to unplug the headset in disgust.  It was such stupid drivel and the characters such cartoons (in the worst possible sense of the word) that I couldn’t suffer through it any longer.  It’s funny how dumb-ed down, populist stuff is harder to do than you think.  Despite the fact that I’m a native of Brooklyn, I never was much of a fan of Welcome Back, Kotter, but Horshack and clan would have been far more compelling.

The Office was up next, but the mystique of that show has always eluded me, too; if you work all day with a bunch of buffoons engaging in office politics, why on earth would you want to come home and watch more of the same?  As an affirmation?  I just find it all terribly depressing, that we are all anesthetized by screens wherever we go.  How can I feel that way since while away countless hours in front of another screen?  Is it because this one lets me talk to it?  After a few minutes, I unplug my headphones and turn on my iPhone, and listen to some talks by the former monk Gil Fronsdal, which I carry with me in case of emergencies like this.

As I finish this, I am sitting in front of a 47 inch Vizio flat screen at my friends' house in a lovely burg in Westchester.  The new device is the pride and joy of a living room that used to have as its focal point a giant old-fashioned pool table.  We are watching Monday night football; for years I’ve tried to understand the game and I have this mental block against it.  But it's fun to be with old friends, drinking wine, yapping about the world, ignoring their occasional color commentary.  M. is trying to explain the game to me again; I know he has twenty times before; i still don't get or want to get it, but I let him try just for the ego of it.

The man of the house just announced to the two of us that he's got to go to sleep, that he'll be up to run at 545am, right before his long commute to work.  Sorry if he disturbs us.  That was just after he regaled us with tales of his recent early morning fishing expeditions with an old friend.  "It's not that I love to get up early," he said.  "But I love doing something useful early.  The difference is I used to watch a whole lot more television, and I gave that up to do these other things."

M. and I, liberated from day jobs for now, keep drinking wine, stretched out on the sofas that have replaced the pool table.  It's hard to imagine we've all known each other for decades.  Somehow we are now killing time, with the Cowboys victorious, watching the Colbert Report, followed by Michael and Michael Have Issues, and a Girls Gone Wild commercial comes on.  Time to excuse myself to go to sleep.

 

 

 

Follow Lisa Napoli on Twitter: www.twitter.com/lisanapoli

Comments

[snesich]

Good article, Lisa. And I agree. Screens are far too ubiquitous these days. I especially dislike how screens have invaded virtually every place that used to be relatively quiet---where you could have a few minutes to yourself to think, read, reflect, even talk with the human beings around you.

Remember when you could actually discuss the baseball game in between innings? Now, God forbid we have one nanosecond without something on the screen to "entertain" us. Airport lounges are the worst. Most stores always have a TV blaring somewhere.

However, there are subtle, but effective ways to fight back. I purchased one of these recently. It's been good to have. I recommend it highly: http://www.tvbgone.com

[Menippee]

This seems like it's actually two essays that got mashed together. One is about how friends and the popular culture sometimes conspire to get people to watch shows that are either not that good or that appeal to a different demographic, and the other is about how it's socially awkward to visit friends that leave the TV on all the time. Unfortunately, the title and the teaser quote (probably a bizaare decision by someone other than the writer) on the main page set up an expectation for only one of these two essays (and as a reader, lead me to believe I'd be reading about the reprehensible practice of TV blaring away in airport terminals, emergency room waiting rooms, and the like). Furthermore, the fact that the part of the article about "Community" and "The Office" includes the author turning the television off in disgust in favor of something she knew she would like after three minutes tends to undermine the idea that screens are, in fact, "everywher­e." If a viewer has power over the on/off switch, then the screen is no longer inescapable.
Either of the two basic themes of the article would make for a good essay, but both together is just sort of puzzling.