by James Wallace Harris
Don’t you think it rather absurd that we’re conscious beings who have emerged into this fantastic reality for no reason that we can confirm and yet spend so much of our lives watching television and computer screens, which are essentially fake realities? Or look at it another way. They say when you die your whole life flashes in front of you in an instant. How will we feel when we see that a large fraction of our life was staring at a screen?
I’m not saying we shouldn’t watch TV or play on a computer, but I’m just asking if it isn’t weird when the universe around us is so far out that we should? Or maybe television is the most far-out thing this reality has produced?
I belong to the first generation brought up on television, and now we’re the generation that will spend our waning years going out watching TV. I’m 72 and can remember 69 years of screen addiction. Was it worth it? Or was it a lifetime devoted to a false idol?
When I was young, television shows were probably the most common topic of discussion I had with other people, and now that I’m old, that’s become true again. Whenever I get together with people, or talk with them on the phone, we generally always compare what television shows we’ve been watching, and which ones we recommend. Is that true for you and your friends?
Over the years I have found several ways to mark, rule, and remember time. Who was I living with, where was I living (state, city, street, house), what grade or job was I in, who was president, what songs were popular, what books I read, where I went to school or work, and of course, what was popular on TV.
Television has become a time machine because we can now watch shows from any period of our lives. The same is true with music and books, but television has more details that connect us with our past. If I watch an old show from the 1950s it reminds me of what the clothes, cars, houses, furniture, and people looked like back then.
Television is also transgenerational. The other night on Survivor, a few of the young contestants talked about how they loved to watch The Andy Griffith Show. I must wonder if that’s where they get their mental conception of the 1960s. I know I’m getting a mental image of the Nazi occupation of Paris from The New Look on Apple+ TV.
This makes me realize that I have several modes for evaluating reality. I assume the best mode is direct experience. Just above my monitor is a picture window, and outside that window is a tree. Books and magazines give me another view of nature via words. I’ve learned a lot about trees from them. But then, I’ve seen the most variety of trees and landscapes with trees on television. I’ve lived in many states, north, south, east, and west. But I’ve seen more places on TV.
TV is like our sixth sense. However, it can be a sense that looks out on reality like we do with our eyes, or it looks at make believe fantasies, like we do with our inner vision and daydreams.
I probably spend 4-5 hours a day watching TV. During my working years, I believe that number was less. In my childhood I think it was more. I’ve always wondered what life would have been like if I never watched television. I think it would have been more real but duller. I try to imagine what life was like in the 19th century, say as a farmer or factory worker. News about the world at large would come through newspapers and magazines, and it would be much delayed in time.
Now that I’m getting old and wanting to do less, I thought I would be watching more television. We think of television as a babysitter for children, but isn’t that also true for us old folks? However, I’m losing my ability to watch TV for some reason. I can only watch TV series and movies if I’m watching them with other people. Watching them by myself makes me restless. I can watch short things like YouTube videos by myself, but I’m even getting restless watching that stuff too.
I had planned to catch up on a lot of television shows and movies in retirement, but that’s not working out. I’m wondering if this is happening to other people. Does the novelty of television ever wear off?
JWH
Auxiliary Memory 
I, myself, rarely watch Television. But, I do watch quite a bit of YouTube. Most of what I watch on YouTube is cooking or True Crime which is educational and I love to read which keeps my imagination in check. I don’t think it’s an age thing, though because my older sister (by like 15 years) can’t live without watching Television.
I know some older friends that rarely watch television, but they have a lot of crafty hobbies. Then other friends my age watch tons of television. I guess I need more crafty hobbies because I can fill in a lot of hours with the TV.
I don’t have crafty hobbies. I just prefer reading and YouTube, I think.
Well, YouTube, reading, and listening to music are my main activities. I just fantasize about having a crafty hobby.
hello again Rick Manning here I see my very old moniker on WordPress is still alive we were talking about writing samples; one is attached, fresh off the presses Old television is of interest to me not only for memory’s sake, but for something I might work on dealing with pre-cinema and/or pre-television consciousness. I think you lamented recently that some topics were above your cognitive capacity. I wanted to write back straight away to assure you not to worry, as I have the same problem. I’d like to be working on all kinds of projects way above my pay grade, but will have to shelve till my next lifetime. Even consciousness is a bit above my range, but I might be able to contribute some elemental tidbits. A few years ago I bumped into an internet slide show along the title of television shows everyone seems to have forgotten. I actually remembered quite a few of them. The interesting thing was that many of them ran only a season or two, or sometimes just a few episodes. Mystery number one: why were these remembered so well by a ten year old? Or was I 12? Anyway, I constructed an age graph to start plotting these shows and other memories. Ripcord, The Whirleybirds, that show with the airboat in the everglades, Riverboat are a few of them. When I dig up my physical notes, I will probably have a few more. The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits were my prime memories, though it was only recently discovered why I couldn’t remember a lot of the Outer Limits stuff. Turns out the time slot changed, and my father overruled my brother and I when it ran against The Jackie Gleason Show on Saturday Night. You probably remember the era when there was only one black and white broadcast television in the household, and who usually held jurisdiction. To supplement my memory markers to map the development of my ElderMind, last night I caught something in the music realm on YouTube while I was letting the algorithms take charge, a song I had forgotten for 50 or 60 years, Indiana Wants Me, a sappy but well-constructed piece that might have been ahead of its time. My basic goal at the moment is to create an “end of life” booklist of working, retiring, dying, consciousness, etc. I’ll send it off to you when it’s done. In the meantime, I’m going to track down some of those Outer Limits episodes I missed. Take care. Rick
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I followed the link to your WordPress site, but it said it was inactive.
I also remember Ripcord, Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, and The Whirlybirds. They make me think of Sky King, Seahunt, Highway Patrol, Combat, and many other shows from that era. I’m good at remembering TV from the late 1950s through to about 1969. Then I fall off watching TV during the 1970s. I remember Kung Fu, MASH, All in the Family, but little else. I pick up after I got married in 1978, and me and the wife started watching Must See Thursday night in the 1980s.
I’m also thinking of what I want to focus on during the last third of life.
I had forgotten Sky King; the others you mentioned I also watched. I’m curious now to see wh