I think I've developed a natural "zapper" over the years. After a lifetime of patiently enduring the endless babble and noise from the family's Big Square Eye, I honestly don't even hear it anymore. I tune it right out without even trying, it seems.

Last year I finally bit the bullet and cancelled my cable. Six months after my youngest son left for college, I realized I hadn't even turned the thing on once - and here I was shelling out $40 a month for nothing! Well, the cable people acted like I was asking them to disconnect my head or something - how could I possibly NOT want at least 100 channels of s*** to choose from?

When I finally convinced them YES I really DID want it disconnected and NO I was definitely not interested in their "special bundle" package deals, they added an extra $15 a month to my hi-speed internet bill. Apparently I can't have an internet cable connection without also receiving very basic TV (2 or 3 relatively useless local stations) - so they "have to" bill me for the TV service anyway. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR ....

But what really bugs me is this - when I'm at a friend's, or a restaurant, airport etc where the big Square Eyes are babbling away (unnoticed, for the most part) - if I relax and allow my eyes to rest on that screen, I'm gone. I'll sit there like some zombie staring at that screen without even being consciously aware of what I'm supposedly "watching". Maybe it's the movement that's so mesmerizing! TV seems to put my brain almost instantly into "stand-by" mode. I tune out the noise no problem, but if I LOOK at the screen - bye bye world.

It's kinda demeaning   *sigh*

If some alien race had bequeathed us with televisions 20,000 years ago, I doubt we'd ever have made it out of the caves.

daylia