We all knew those kids that grew up with no television in their life. Interesting kids is the nice way of putting it. Strange weirdos might be more appropriate. TV is a great bond between people, a cultural living history that we all share. But while TV can be incredible, we also know instinctively that it's bad for us.
Never have I read something that describes this feeling so well as David Foster Wallace's essay on TV in A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never do Again. Today I wanted to share his words about TV as the escape and the trap. How TV creates a problem which only TV can solve. Enjoy:
"Of course, the downside of TV's big fantasy is that it's just a fantasy. As a Treat, my escape from the limits of genuine experience is neato. As a steady diet, though, it can't help but render my own reality less attractive (because in it I'm just one Dave, with limits and restrictions all over the place), render me less fit to make the most of it (because I spend all my time pretending I'm not in it), and render me ever more dependent on the device that affords escape from just what my escapism makes unpleasant."
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