You come home, put your feet and the coffee table and sigh. What an awful day. You turn on the television expecting nothing but the usual boring drivel that usually occupies the airwaves. But there. There it is. Your favorite
Alyssa
The television droned in the other room, but the sound wasn’t the cause of David’s discomfort. It had begun to bother him that his wife seemed to prefer falling asleep in front of the set to climbing into bed with him.
Frustrated with today’s television and the content that is all the same… unoriginal and done before. Crime show after crime show and stupid mindless comedy after stupid mindless comedy.
A BOX A SCREEN, FOCUSSING YOUR EVERY ATOM, EYES, EARS, BODY STILL, HYPNOTIC ATTRACTION, IMPOSSIBLE TO CONTROL. the tv has the remote – we are its puppets – crying, laughing on command
gill
The strangest thing has been the new television. They were unheard of here until a couple of years ago, but now I see them more and more. The people seem listless now, instead of the vibrancy I saw on my first trip here. I don’t yet understand the allure of watching someone else’s life instead of living your own, but I can’t bear to let myself watch, a, a telly, for fear of getting just as sucked in, as if surrendering my life for the sake of being still.
Television, arguably one of the most influential inventions of all time. A great tool, a powerful weapon. Television has the power to unite a vulture, while simultaneously destroying it as well. Immense reach. Immense power.
Bryce Maher
i was home alone, sick, on that 22nd of nov, saw the first news flash, watched cronkite cry,
Everybody know that TV rots your brain. I hate to think that, but it is more than likely true. But in some ways, I think it can be beneficial. Like educational TV I, personally, love some PBS in the background. You just can’t beat Nova and Nature and Secrets of the Dead. Don’t you agree?
I never really watch television. I like to see things for myself. I do enjoy the occasional drama or tv series but I’ve never gotten into politics or the news.
Katelyn
i have a lover
i see her every weeknight at 9:30 sharp
it has been called an idiot box and a baby sitter and I still marvel that with over 80 channels, there is nothing to watch. My mother used it, when she was still at her home and living alone, as noise in the background. She told me that it made her think that there was someone in the house with her. And for that I am grateful.
One day television stopped. It was a failure of the satellites, the streams, the chords, the cables, cable itself, half a failing of attention and any other myriad of factors but the fact of matter was: television was over. Across America many families spent several hours slapping the remote control with their hands — as many families were known to do this then, smack electronics in the hope that a loose piece of electronic would be shaken back into place, which, logically, was very much insane, because what would happen in the event that the electronic piece wasn’t loose but because of the blunt force of the remote being struck against a hand was shaken loose, eliciting something similar to William Paley’s “watchmaker analogy” that we were in part playing the role in God, that in trying to create something we had destroyed it, or in trying to destroy something, created, evermore — and when this failed to produce any results the families wandered squint-eyed into the afternoon sun and placed their hands on their hips and then turned and shrugged at one another and smiled, some blaming the government and others blaming the failings of the cable companies but the truth was it was the failings of their own imagination, so determined by other men and women whose own imaginations had begun the perilous decent into the unimaginative, and so the families receded into their homes, embarrassed, unsure of what to do, and so returned to their couches and sat, and stared, and waited, until the their reflections slowly came into view, the picture of them staring back at themselves, waiting, waiting, waiting for something to happen, filled with this vacant hope that soon, someone would do something.
I think, sometimes, we watch too much television. Plop ourselves down on the couch, make some popcorn to shove in our faces, and before you know it, it’s after midnight and I’m asleep, trying to get our TV to forgive me.
He lay in bed, with a soft duvet covering her half of her soft body. Her breath fell ever softly, a slight smile upon her lips. She was dreaming, something magical as always. For him, he needed no dream, for his dream was laying there beside him. She was better than any television program, any book, or any fantasy. She was his perfect reality.
I lied
Played pure in my bed
As the television groaned in the back
I lied.
All I do is lie anymore
Under the windowless sky
I cannot pinpoint the day it started
Maybe when I isolated myself survivour
I don’t watch much television – apart from a few soaps and quizzes. Even then I tend to be doing something else at the same time. I don’t think I’d like to be without it though.
What a day it was when our parents surprised us with a television set. We could not contained our excitement as we ran through the village to tell all of our friends the good news.
everything i watch is mindless. the people scream at me from inside the box of nothingness. they love it, they crave our attention and we reciprocate by craving theirs. we need the nothingness and this is what scares me.
Julia
My drug, the television. It calls to me when I am reading a good book. Teasing me, you know you want me.
There it was. A glimmer from out of the bleak darkness. And we called it an invasion. There was nobody to save but ourselves. Guilt and femine fatale. We were all that there was. And this is how it ends. The light from out of the endless darkness. Forever more the high hopes rise. Never.
The television was an invasion. We couldn’t do much to save ourselves, but there were others to consider. We took each into consideration. But was it even a glimmer of light in the dark clouds? How could we know the truth? Never. Not again. Television rings forever in the souls of black folk. All is all is all.
Julia
The television flickered, blue light dancing across the cracked walls. I lazily traced the path of a scuttling cockroach with my eyes.
You come home, put your feet and the coffee table and sigh. What an awful day. You turn on the television expecting nothing but the usual boring drivel that usually occupies the airwaves. But there. There it is. Your favorite
The television droned in the other room, but the sound wasn’t the cause of David’s discomfort. It had begun to bother him that his wife seemed to prefer falling asleep in front of the set to climbing into bed with him.
Frustrated with today’s television and the content that is all the same… unoriginal and done before. Crime show after crime show and stupid mindless comedy after stupid mindless comedy.
ruins me.
i really can’t.
but maybe you can.
take the remote.
take the device.
take my brain.
that is all i can offer
in exchange for this paradise you have given me.
i will accept any imperfection if you will take my surrender.
A BOX A SCREEN, FOCUSSING YOUR EVERY ATOM, EYES, EARS, BODY STILL, HYPNOTIC ATTRACTION, IMPOSSIBLE TO CONTROL. the tv has the remote – we are its puppets – crying, laughing on command
The strangest thing has been the new television. They were unheard of here until a couple of years ago, but now I see them more and more. The people seem listless now, instead of the vibrancy I saw on my first trip here. I don’t yet understand the allure of watching someone else’s life instead of living your own, but I can’t bear to let myself watch, a, a telly, for fear of getting just as sucked in, as if surrendering my life for the sake of being still.
television lets us see more.
what little we’d see without it.
but why not see things in person?
experience them for yourself?
the smells?
the touches?
the breezes?
why watch when you can be?
why simply look when you can go?
Television, arguably one of the most influential inventions of all time. A great tool, a powerful weapon. Television has the power to unite a vulture, while simultaneously destroying it as well. Immense reach. Immense power.
i was home alone, sick, on that 22nd of nov, saw the first news flash, watched cronkite cry,
Everybody know that TV rots your brain. I hate to think that, but it is more than likely true. But in some ways, I think it can be beneficial. Like educational TV I, personally, love some PBS in the background. You just can’t beat Nova and Nature and Secrets of the Dead. Don’t you agree?
I never really watch television. I like to see things for myself. I do enjoy the occasional drama or tv series but I’ve never gotten into politics or the news.
i have a lover
i see her every weeknight at 9:30 sharp
It was a window to the world when I was younger.
Pre-Internet days, a little boy in a rural city. It was parent #3 for me, and somehow I turned out okay. Right?
it has been called an idiot box and a baby sitter and I still marvel that with over 80 channels, there is nothing to watch. My mother used it, when she was still at her home and living alone, as noise in the background. She told me that it made her think that there was someone in the house with her. And for that I am grateful.
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One day television stopped. It was a failure of the satellites, the streams, the chords, the cables, cable itself, half a failing of attention and any other myriad of factors but the fact of matter was: television was over. Across America many families spent several hours slapping the remote control with their hands — as many families were known to do this then, smack electronics in the hope that a loose piece of electronic would be shaken back into place, which, logically, was very much insane, because what would happen in the event that the electronic piece wasn’t loose but because of the blunt force of the remote being struck against a hand was shaken loose, eliciting something similar to William Paley’s “watchmaker analogy” that we were in part playing the role in God, that in trying to create something we had destroyed it, or in trying to destroy something, created, evermore — and when this failed to produce any results the families wandered squint-eyed into the afternoon sun and placed their hands on their hips and then turned and shrugged at one another and smiled, some blaming the government and others blaming the failings of the cable companies but the truth was it was the failings of their own imagination, so determined by other men and women whose own imaginations had begun the perilous decent into the unimaginative, and so the families receded into their homes, embarrassed, unsure of what to do, and so returned to their couches and sat, and stared, and waited, until the their reflections slowly came into view, the picture of them staring back at themselves, waiting, waiting, waiting for something to happen, filled with this vacant hope that soon, someone would do something.
I think, sometimes, we watch too much television. Plop ourselves down on the couch, make some popcorn to shove in our faces, and before you know it, it’s after midnight and I’m asleep, trying to get our TV to forgive me.
He lay in bed, with a soft duvet covering her half of her soft body. Her breath fell ever softly, a slight smile upon her lips. She was dreaming, something magical as always. For him, he needed no dream, for his dream was laying there beside him. She was better than any television program, any book, or any fantasy. She was his perfect reality.
vflgkdrg;lkd;lgkd;lkfg’hkfghlkf;lkhf’hld’l.
I lied
Played pure in my bed
As the television groaned in the back
I lied.
All I do is lie anymore
Under the windowless sky
I cannot pinpoint the day it started
Maybe when I isolated myself survivour
I don’t watch much television – apart from a few soaps and quizzes. Even then I tend to be doing something else at the same time. I don’t think I’d like to be without it though.
What a day it was when our parents surprised us with a television set. We could not contained our excitement as we ran through the village to tell all of our friends the good news.
everything i watch is mindless. the people scream at me from inside the box of nothingness. they love it, they crave our attention and we reciprocate by craving theirs. we need the nothingness and this is what scares me.
My drug, the television. It calls to me when I am reading a good book. Teasing me, you know you want me.
There it was. A glimmer from out of the bleak darkness. And we called it an invasion. There was nobody to save but ourselves. Guilt and femine fatale. We were all that there was. And this is how it ends. The light from out of the endless darkness. Forever more the high hopes rise. Never.
The television was an invasion. We couldn’t do much to save ourselves, but there were others to consider. We took each into consideration. But was it even a glimmer of light in the dark clouds? How could we know the truth? Never. Not again. Television rings forever in the souls of black folk. All is all is all.
The television flickered, blue light dancing across the cracked walls. I lazily traced the path of a scuttling cockroach with my eyes.