When I was six years old my parents decided to move the family to another country, and they left the TV behind (never to buy one again). I’ve never owned a TV, though I’ve shared my household with people who would have one in the common area. To this day, TV just absorbs me, I just can’t stop watching. I become the caricature of an absent minded drooling zombie. When people speak to me while watching TV I don’t respond. When I go to a bar that has any channel on, I zone out of social life.

Though I developed what some people might call “good habits” (I picked up cooking and reading as a kid). But I also think TV is culture in it’s own merit, in the sense that it’s a shared experience. I’ve seen a lot of people talk about TV shows with great passion, and I’m totally lost on that experience.

In the end TV is just a medium, and you choose what to watch. It is true that the quality of most TV shows is appalling (and yet I can’t stop looking), but I’ve found that if I turn it on specifically to watch a show, instead tuning out, I can have a healthy relationship with it.