Last Week's Struggle with TV
Okay so quarantine was a little tough on everyone for all kinds of reasons, I know. However, my problems with tv were apparent long before I had to stay at home.
I tend to not watch the “pop-culture” stuff and honestly have never really been into pop culture in the first place (no I am not this way to be hipster). I just don’t like spoilers and I seem to get tired of things super quick.
Harry Potter? Never read a book and only saw maybe two of the movies.
Marvel and all the superheroes? Only went to accompany friends and brother.
Now I did read all of the Twilight series and I think I saw the first movie (Team Jacob 100%) but otherwise, I’m pretty unexperienced in most movies and book series. Junie B. Jones rocked it though.
Currently, I’m struggling with Netflix and Hulu and all of the current recommendations on Facebook that my friends are posting. A problem as in, I cannot seem to turn it off and I finish a whole series within a week! And then I become disappointed in myself because I don’t want to start another series, I want to focus, but then the cycle repeats. I still have to begin Westworld, I know.
So far, I have completed all the following during the past two months
Scandal - entire series rewatch
Ozark - season 3
Workin Moms - entire series
Little Fires Everywhere - entire series
13 Reasons Why - season 4 finale
Kim’s Convenience - entire series
Riverdale - current season (and I also regret my time wasted on this show)
Sweet Magnolias - entire series
Probably more that I’m missing.
I have not watched (and will not) Tiger King, though Alex did but I did not participate.
Above is a lot of tv time! And I am not one to have the tv on in the background just for noise, so if something is playing, I am paying attention to each second of it. The only things I can do while watching tv is eat, drink tea, and do some throwing on the pottery wheel. Otherwise I am a potato.
The thing is that I have so much better things to do than to watch tv, and it’s not that I do not complete my tasks, it’s that it throws off my routine and cuts into my sleep time which is the most important thing to me.
So how do I fix this?
I just turned on the tv to start watching Outer Banks but paused it at the 1:12 mark to fill out my planner and do my savoring activity to get that out of the way.
Netflix just sent me a notification saying that the final season of How to Get Away With Murder has been released (WHAT?! Guess I’m not sleeping tonight….jk jk), so I clear the notification and try to forget about it.
I have a glass of wine as I write this and I’ve decided to enjoy the wine without being distracted. Staying in the moment even for the wine is really what is best.
I have reminded myself that the earlier I sleep, the earlier I wake up, and the better I will feel all day tomorrow. I’ve stayed up until 1am twice this week already and my goal is 7 nights a week to be asleep by 11pm.
Tomorrow, I’ll get up and go out in the sun or explore a little (I’m at the Bishop Beach House right now) instead of staying inside looking at the tv all day.
I also have to remember that the tv will be there when I get back and I can use it as an activity for my “resting” time.
I need to fill my time with reading and writing and all of the fun things I love to do so my hobbies can take over my free time.
Call a friend or schedule a FaceTime date.
Dig deeper into my courses, even if it is only one chapter at a time.
Go through all of my old photos on my phone and laptop and pick out some to print for frames.
YOGA.
I have never really had a clingy relationship with tv before, but the shows I watch are so intriguing to me and watching tv is completely effortless. Sometimes I can make it healthy by doing squats while I watch but that gets old really quick and I don’t want obsessive habits from my youth to come back (not an excuse I promise, but really).
Haven’t we all gotten too comfortable with that reassuring relationship we have developed with streaming? Remember when we were kids and we couldn’t pause the tv? I go back to the night my parents recorded Cadet Kelly on vhs for me while we went out to dinner and I was absolutely amazed that was possible and look at these kids now! They look at you like you’re an alien when you tell them we didn’t have the luxury of pausing a show to go pee or fast forwarding to the commercial and watching a movie on demand.
Some of my friends have deleted their Netflix accounts before because of its interference with their creativity and drive. I haven’t gone that far myself, mainly because I haven’t had cable in 7 years so that would take away all the options, but that action is commendable! For the most part, I try to limit my social media time because I do feel that watching an hour of tv is more healthy than spending an hour mindlessly scrolling through Facebook and looking at everyone else’s lives (because that comparison factor always creeps into the back of your mind whether you realize it or not).
Yes, there is a much better way to spend our time than watching tv, but sometimes we do need that effortless release and that is okay! Sometimes I’ll watch a show and it’ll inspire me or change my perspective (y’all should really watch Scandal if you haven’t already. Your entire thought process of politics will likely change and you’ll have a better understanding of alllll the places that the corruption comes from), so I don’t consider tv an “evil” but it is a thief of my time because it absolutely and completely sucks me in!
I’m going to try to be better about it and spread out how many episodes I watch in one day so that I’m not dreading that final episode of the next series I watch. I’m just tired of the constant disappointment when I finish a season/series. I know I know, I don’t want to sound a certain way, but it is life and it is what’s taking up the little bit of extra brain space I have right now, so I gotta put it out there.
If you’re having separation issues with tv right now, let me know and we can fill our time with some face chat or something.
*Since writing this, I have finished the final season of How to Get Away With Murder as well as the first season of Outer Banks (with Alex so quality time there).