With little exception, watching television is a waste of my time. Emotionally and intellectually, most television programs are set at a junior high school level. Watching television rarely requires the use of body or mind. I also find most of the advertising pretty insulting. There are so many things I am interested in that I never see on television.

I have a television. I do not have cable and I rarely watch the few channels that my antenna catches. I think television is a wonderful invention with infinite potential, but most television programs do not interest me.

"Television offers neither rest or stimulation."1 Many people enjoy sitting in front of the television after a hard day's work, but I fail to see how television is relaxing or restful. The exhaustion and emptiness I feel after watching a few hours of television is similar to how I feel after a few hours of shopping.

When watching television, the mind may be in alpha, but it is not a dead mind. Images (most of them hollow) are pour

Advertising is also largely responsible for the mindlessness of most television programs. "In order to reach its maximum audience (to whom sponsors can sell more product), television shows have to be dumbed down to the point of having little or no intellectual value or relevance."2 Television shows are always appealing to the "lowest common denominator."

Seinfeld, however, is a brilliant show compared to most of the garbage on television. Most of the sitcoms are mindless and unfunny, but people watch them anyway. "The reason they have to add that stupid laugh track is so you know what part is supposed to be funny."2 I wonder if the people who create these shows do this because they know the show is unfunny or because they know their viewers are stupid. How insulting the laugh track is. They may as well say, You're supposed to laugh at this part, idiot.

"By the time most Americans are 18 years old, they have spent more time in front of the television set than they have spent in school, and far more than they have spent talking with their teachers, their friends or even their parents."3 I cannot imagine why anyone would spend years of their life watching television. I cannot imagine a person with a body and a brain who does not having something better to do.

Like most television programs, sports distract us from things that are genuinely relevant to our lives.

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Approximate Word count = 1449
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)