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My sister called the show I love 'background noise for folding laundry' and now I'm questioning everything
So I was at my sister's place in Cleveland over the weekend helping her move some furniture, and her TV was on in the background playing some reality show about tiny houses. I made a joke about how I can't stand those shows, and she goes 'oh please, you watch that fantasy thing every Sunday like it's church.' I said yeah because it's actually good, and she said, and I quote, 'it's just background noise for folding laundry, nobody actually watches it.' That kind of stung because I do actually watch it. I sit down with a cup of coffee and pay attention to every episode. But then I started thinking about how many shows I keep up with just out of habit and not because I even like them anymore, and whether the networks know we're all just half watching and that's why they keep churning out the same stuff. It made me wonder if the shows I'd fight to save are the same ones everybody else is only half paying attention to. What show do you actually sit down and watch with your full attention, versus one you just leave on while you're doing chores?
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seanbennett13d ago
My wife does the exact same thing with those home reno shows on HGTV, they're on from like 6pm to 10pm every night while she scrolls her phone and she couldn't tell you the name of a single couple from any episode. But here's the thing I keep noticing, it's everywhere now, not just TV. I'll be at a restaurant and look around and half the tables are on their phones while the food sits there, or I'm at a red light and the guy next to me is watching a video. We've all kind of agreed that being fully present for one thing is too much to ask, so we just stack stuff on top of each other and call it relaxing. The part that gets me is your sister wasn't even trying to be mean, she probably really believes that's what TV is for now, just something to fill the quiet. So when you sit down with your coffee and actually watch your show, you're doing something that's almost becoming rare, and that's probably why it stung, because it felt like she was saying that kind of attention doesn't matter anymore.
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