Facts about television

1. Television viewing is a personal activity, not a social one, in the same way that dreaming is a personal activity. There is nothing more confidential than the lower reaches of the brain where one's direst feelings seethe; this is the place where dreams and programs alike attach themselves. The functions of television are more private than those of the bath.

2. Television viewing is enjoyable because psychic pressure is being eased. Simply put, the store of repression and tension is being depleted and the viewer experiences relief. It's a pleasure to shed some of the unavoidable accumulation of frustration and resentment in a manner devoid of guilt or reason for retribution.

3. Television viewing is needed because the capacity to store psychic tension is a limited one. A person can hold so much and no more. Unless the pressure is going to be vented in antisocial ways, fantasy material will be in demand.

4. The casualness of viewing is due to the fact that it is the unconscious regions of the mind, not the conscious, which are the target of television images. Viewing does not have to be closely done, and probably should not be, if it is to have the desired effects. It can be haphazard as the unconscious processes themselves. By being viewed absently and piecemeal, the content may have the best chance of seeping down into minds and dissolving the debris.

5. Television viewing is logically an evening activity because then it can help reduce the day's buildup of tension. It is the antithesis of what goes on during working hours. Because it succeeds at unwinding people, television has displaced the traditional activities that did this.

6. Fraternizing, sleep, other innocent diversions - over the past three decades they have surrendered a bit to the intrusion of television. People don't chat with their neighbors and family quite as much as they used to.

The true purpose of television is to remove mental debris from the minds of viewers.

[taken from: Fowles, J. "What Viewers Truly Want", Why Viewers Watch: A Reappraisal of Television's Effects, Sage, Newbury, 1992, pp.46-49.]



So.............Let's watch telly everyone......