The Television Conspiracy- Do you control it, or does it control you?, page 2

I am one of those "deer caught in headlights" people when there is a TV on around me.

Have no idea really what I'm watching after a while, just sit and watch.

I am sure after about an hour there could be drool oozing out of my mouth and a glassy appearance to my eyes. Ask me what I've been watching and I'm likely to respond with an irritable "I dunno know".

I got rid of TV when my daughter was 10. Life has been nice and quiet since, though I do find I can be captivated by a TV anywhere away from home and sucked right back in. Even commercials, news, kids shows....doesn't seem to matter.

Originally I got rid of the TV because it has been proven to overstimulate children with certain learning disabilities.

With TV my kid and I were glued to it. Sleep was an issue and neither one of slept well. her appetite was low as she'd be so distracted by the TV that she couldn't eat a meal. Turning it off was always a HUGE fight.

I just got POd one day and got rid of it for good. The kid came home and saw it gone and literally for almost a week she would sit in the same spot on the couch and stare off into the corner where the TV used to be.

After a week of no TV both of us started sleeping better. Her behavior at school and at home improved dramatically and her appetite was 100% improved.

We did keep an old, small TV around to watch video's on but had no cable and no UHF antenna to get free signals.

I had always been a voracious reader prior to TV, and went back to it right away, my daughter began the same ritual and was going through books like crazy!

I recently spent a week at a friend's and was absolutely glued to her big plasma TV with a ridiculous # of channels. It pretty much stayed on HGTV though as working the remote was akin to brain surgery for me. No idea what exactly I watched for a week but it had something to do with home improvement LOL. Figured that was the safest channel I could watch and I just left it there.

I apparently am the perfect candidate for TV mind melding and/or brainwashing via subliminal signals and messages because as soon as I got back home after a week of HGTV I desperately wanted to make holes in things and had an insatiable urge to paint my apartment.

Thankfully my BF talked me off the DIY ledge and all is calm and quiet again.

Some people can watch an hour and turn it off and it's no big deal...I am not one of those people. The near anxiety I feel when thinking of turning it off and potentially missing something is quite bizarre. TV is really the only thing that affects me this way.

I was never allowed to watch it when I was younger...the door was opened firt thing in the morning and we were let loose on the neighborhood instead.

Saturday cartoons and Walt Disney on Sunday evenings after a family dinner of roast and potatoes.

In my teens, my step dad severely limited my TV and now I understand why LOL.

I always wanted to watch the Gong Show but he deemed it "garbage programming" and I was only allowed to watch historic and/or mind improvement shows.

And I always had to have an "adult present" so we could discuss what was being watched. pain in my arse it was and I despised it. All in all, I guess they realized that I was a potential TV junkie.

Will likely never own a TV with cable or satellite channels. That's a good thing.