Woman Becomes Anti-Social Due To Presence of TV

Posted by Matt Cipriano | No Comments

Allison Wood recently wrote a “My Turn” Editorial for Newsweek titled “Please Remove the Boob Tube” in which she ranted about how televisions are popping up everywhere from her post office to her bank to her department store.

Her view was that if she wanted to watch television, she would do it on her own time and decide what she wanted to watch for herself. Beyond that she felt that television was making people anti-social. No more chatter amongst customers in lines nor are people “God forbid…spend[ing] a moment daydreaming.” She says that while it is still possible to do either of these tasks, it is an uphill battle.

Well, now it is my turn to editorialize her editorial and rant about Ms. Wood.

First off, I go to the post office at least once a month and there’s no tv. I have never seen one at my bank, my department store (except in the appropriate section) or waiting on line at any of the supermarkets I go to. You know what else I never see at those locations? People waiting in line and chit-chatting with each other. Maybe Chapel Hill, NC (where Wood is writing from) is just a friendlier place then New York, but, really, when I am in line I want to be distracted, especially if I didn’t bring my own distraction.

Rather than standing around, my frustration growing at the length of the line, I’d gladly stare up at a television. And really, if Wood considers it an uphill battle to daydream or to get others to converse with her rather than to watch television, well, maybe she just isn’t that interesting a person.

I know there have been plenty of times when, in the middle of my own choice of entertainment, I have found myself daydreaming and missed entire shows. It seems her complaint isn’t so much about the televisions themselves, but rather the choice of programming that the proprietors of the locations she frequents choose to put on. If she truly had a problem with people being too distracted to have a conversation with her, maybe she should start with complaining about people who blankly stare at their cell phones on lines, playing games or texting back and forth, or the people with headphones tuning everyone else out. Or she could always assail books, which are the original culprit seen distracting any number of people on lines.

Maybe Ms. Wood just needs to face facts. It is not that people are too distracted by television to chat with her online; it is that she is
far less interesting then Regis & Kelly in the morning.

Comments