Lessons Learned From Junk Television
Ok - I’ll admit it, I’m a bit of a junk-television-junkie!
I’m not proud of it - after all, the time could be better spent diving into my growing stack of eco books, among numerous other fruitful endeavours - but sometimes it’s just nice to flake out in front of the boob tube and watch some good, mindless entertainment - which in this day and age is essentially synonymous with ‘reality tv’.
Whether it be hopelessly out-of-tune, caterwauling American youths (or ‘yutes’ as Joe Pesci would say), a whiny bunch of biz-heads bending over backwards to please ‘The Donald’, or a motley cast of ‘castaways’ discovering creative new ways to backstab one another on some remote tropical island, my weekly junk tv time allows me to unwind after a busy day and offers me an excuse to escape from the lure of my computer nook during the evening.
And it’s not ALL ‘junk’ either - it’s amazing some of the interesting lessons you can learn from watching people behaving badly!
One show I watch occasionally and find strangely intriguing is ‘Wife Swap’. Usually my wife watches it on her own, but due to the close proximity of my ‘nook’, I tend to catch at least part of it regardless. For those of you unfamiliar with the show, I can only imagine what sordid horrors the name might conjure up (I can remember my jaw dropping when I first heard it) - but be assured, it’s all good clean family fun…well…ok, as far as reality tv goes anyway.
By now I’m sure you must be wondering what on earth any of this has to do with green living etc, but bear with me, we’re nearly there!
For all the uninitiated…
Each episode of Wife Swap centers around a two week period in the life of two very different American families. As the name implies, during this period each wife must live in the other household, essentially acting as the wife/mother for the other family - within reason, of course. For the first week the guest wife must follow the rules/routines of her new family, but during the second week she gets to call the shots.
One thing you’ll notice is that they tend to hand-pick the most extreme, polar-opposite families you could ever possibly imagine - ‘neat freaks’ matched with complete slobs, structure & discipline matched with no rules & chaos, health food fanatics matched with junk food fiends - the list goes on. The chasm that separates their different perspectives is often so vast that it can be uncomfortable to watch - yet this is exactly what can make it intriguing for me.
It provides a powerful (albeit exaggerated) reminder of just how different we all are, and just how challenging it can be to really put ourselves in someone else’s shoes.
Under semi-forced circumstances (contractually speaking anyway), as stressful and difficult as the two weeks can be, typically both parties are able to learn valuable lessons from the experience.
[Of course, it wouldn’t be ‘good junk tv’ if there wasn’t the occasional fist fight or screaming match akin to something you might see on Jerry Springer, but I digress…]
Sadly, since most of us are not forced to associate with others who have vastly different ways of looking at the world, we tend to remain divided, without really making the effort to understand those who do not share our views.
This week’s episode was particularly interesting (yeah, it’s my wife’s show…honest!) and in fact provided the inspiration for this post. One of the families was very environmentally focused - gung ho with recycling, composting etc - while the other family were sporting fanatics who simply chucked all their trash into a dumpster on their property.
What’s funny is that it was the wife from the environmental family who shocked and embarassed me - at one point she literally led her new family out to their dumpster and SCREAMED at them for essentially being environmentally pathetic! It certainly came as no surprise when the dumpster-dad turned his back and walked away. Sigh…
The demonstration was yet another reminder of why I’ve never fully embraced environmentalism for most of my adult life. I’ve always felt like my efforts were never good enough, and thus that making any real commitment was pointless. Thankfully I now have a different way of looking at things.
Here’s the question:
Is it better to drag a puppy by the scruff of it’s neck over to where it has pooped on the carpet and beat it with a rolled up newspaper, or to celebrate with love and affection any time the puppy goes outside?
The way I see it, while it’s very important that the pup be educated about the difference between right and wrong, simply screaming at the poor thing every time it makes a mistake only serves the purpose of creating a nervous dog with a negative association with the news (that was me!!!).
Seriously though, there needs to be a LOT more diplomacy, respect and caring if we expect to get anywhere as a global community on all fronts (not just environmental).
On a related sidenote, I’ve started reading a book called “Love Is The Killer App”, by Tim Sanders - a truly refreshing book about the importance of kindness (and other ‘nice’ qualities) in the business world. Of course the lessons can and should be applied to global social interaction as a whole, so I highly recommend it to anyone regardless of profession.
So there you have it folks…
The next time you’re on the couch with converter in-hand, remember - you don’t have to head straight to The Discovery Channel! There are even some lessons to be learned from junk television!
Technorati Tags: reality tv, wife swap, diplomacy, respect, kindness, tim sanders, love is the killer app
Written by Bentley on February 8th, 2007 with
4 comments.
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Bentley
shawn curtis
#1. February 9th, 2007, at 5:22 AM.
I’m sure this entry speaks to a lot of people in a very positive way, but having given up TV a few years ago, I find the whole argument baffling. I’ve seen bits and pieces of reality TV, of course, but realized immediately that none of it related to any part of my reality, nor to any reality I wanted to be a part of. Frankly, I miss watching some sporting events and a few news programs, but just can’t imagine trying to fit TV back into my life. It’s not so much that it’s all “junk,” as that there are so many other things to do. I’m sure the next american idol or star dancer will be absolute godsends but also can bet I won’t know their names and won’t suffer for a second.
TV sucks.