Maybe you’re like me, after a days work you like to plop down in front of the TV and watch a few hours of shows. I’ve been watching a few hours of TV everyday for most of my life. When I think about how much time I spent there, it blows me away. Probably a quarter of my viewing is spent on commercials. I see funny commercials from Budweiser which show thin men getting hot women. And these men will do anything for a beer including screw over their friends. And yet I laugh at the commercial. I watch McDonald’s commercials enticing me to eat the most unhealthy food imaginable.

The daily news, without fail, shows me a tragic crime, a victim story, or a serial killer on the loose, leading me to feel afraid or depressed. The news always focuses on accidents, murders, rape, etc. So this makes me feel that the world is a scary, negative place just waiting to kill me.

And now reality shows have taken over primetime. Now I can watch other people, in bizarre circumstances, get humiliated and be a loser or overcome the odds and win. I can watch 50 different reality shows in one day and not have to be in my own reality.

One thing I have learned is that we are what we eat. This also goes for feeding our brain information, garbage in, garbage out. I stopped watching the news and cut down my TV consumption. I’ve replaced half of my TV watching with reading. And when I do watch TV, it’s usually something to uplift or teach me. No more Jerry Springer fights, or 10 o’clock news, or stupid commercials which I mute out now.  I get my news and weather by going outside.  One day, I think I’ll take my TV out to the desert and shoot it, or maybe blow it up.  I’ve allowed it to feed me useless and negative information for so long.  If you figure, 2 hours a day over 35 years is equal to 1,064 days of CONTINUOUS TELEVISION.  Imagine if I spent that reading, I could have read a couple thousand books and have some serious knowledge.  I could have spent that time volunteering and would have given back to the world in a serious way.  But that is the path I chose, no sense fretting about it.  I am aware of my past and that path got me to where I am today, and that is a great thing…