Relative Something

Seriously. Turn off the television news. Why do we give them so much power in our lives? It intrigues me how our minds formulate a perception of familiarity with the anchorpersons over time. We come to perceive them as family when they spend years in our homes morning and night. THEY AREN’T FAMILY! Of course, it serves the broadcast stations well to market the anchors to the public as such, but it is not accurate.

One way to visualize breaking the insidious daily habit of television news is using the example of going on vacation. When enjoying time away from our home routine we find plenty of ways to fill the time without tuning in to TV news. For some people, it takes a while into the vacation to shake loose from that feeling that there is a need to turn on the news at an appointed hour. It passes. A week, or if lucky, two weeks of vacation and it becomes easy to forget what day it is, let alone that it is time to watch the news. Now imagine carrying that carefree bliss forward, even after returning home. It is incredibly freeing to live without that soundtrack purporting to be news, bombarding your daily life.

Shunning television news doesn’t automatically leave one ignorant of world and local events. Glance at the headlines of a newspaper or online news source. Catch a news update from a radio broadcast. There. You are aware. If you need to know more, look it up. Be in charge of what you want to give your attention to, instead of relying on what is served up on commercial television.

If none of this resonates for you, at least consider this exercise next time you open your eyes and ears to what they are delivering… Determine who is paying for the advertising during the news. You are their target. The television station is making money off its ability to draw you in as a dedicated (addicted) viewer. The “news” they offer is just an ingredient in the recipe designed to bolster the value of their ad rates and avoid falling out of favor with their paying advertisers.

I don’t want it as part of my life.

Of course, I do give up learning the “news” about who got kicked off their featured reality show that day.

It is my bliss.