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This week is TV Turnoff Week, the wonderful initiative started by Adbusters and the Center for Screen-Time Awareness to encourage us to turn off the idiot box. I stopped watching TV when I moved out of my parents’ house almost two years ago. I haven’t missed it. Yes, I have a screen for movies and watch occasionally, but otherwise I find things to do like exercise, read, and further my knowledge via the Internet. My only regular TV exposure right now is when I’m in the gym; there I enjoy watching the History Channel.
I encourage you this week to turn off your TV and discover activities that refresh you. Here are ten things you can do this week instead of watch TV:
- Read a Book - The one you’ve been putting off reading. Or, you can read about the media, books such as Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman or Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News by Bernard Goldberg.
- Pick up a new skill or enroll in a class. Right now I’m reading Rod Machado’s Private Pilot Handbook and studying up on my knowledge before beginning lessons.
- Two words: Spring Cleaning!
- Go for a walk/jog/bike ride outside.
- Attend a cultural event, concert, or visit an art gallery if you’re into that sort of thing (then again, if you are, how much TV do you really watch?)
- Go throw a ball or play a game with some friends - it’s about that time of year!
- Cook a meal and eat it together as a family. If you aren’t married or don’t have kids, invite some friends over and cook a meal together.
- Play a board game or party game. Recently I had fun playing classics like Connect 4 and Pit with some friends. Other current favorites are Catch Phrase and Apples to Apples.
- Write something - a short story, a long story, a how-to guide or even some thank-you notes. Start a blog and publish what you wrote.
- Review your goals and catch up on your to-do lists. Don’t kick yourself, just give yourself permission to take a fresh stab and make progress towards things you want to accomplish.
What about the Internet? Shouldn’t we turn that off too?
To that I’d ask: Are you learning and engaging your mind on the Internet, are you doing something interactive? Or are you just surfing MySpace, Facebook, or going from video to video? The Internet is fundamentally an interactive medium. TV is fundamentally one-way. Steve Jobs was quoted in Macworld as saying, “You watch television to turn your brain off and you work on your computer when you want to turn your brain on.” This week, try dialing back your consumption online, and dialing up learning and creating.
Further Reading on TV Turnoff Week and on TV Watching
What are you doing this week instead of watching TV?
I was involved in a group once with someone who was so negative that I’ve even wondered how they are alive. When I would walk into a meeting, they wouldn’t say “hello,” but would creepily come up from behind and softly launch into a complaint, like “some jerk cut me off on the road today, blah blah blah” or “did you hear about what my boss said? wahhh wahh wahh.” With this person, nothing was positive or even pleasant, ever. They laid out their sorry financial and medical situation to anyone who would listen, talking bad about relatives and friends and passing blame. Not surprisingly, nothing was ever their responsibility (and certainly they weren’t responsible for their attitude).
People who act this way suck energy, and if you’re not careful, they can discourage you from moving forward; whether that’s taking on new projects, learning about an area of interest, or pursuing lifelong goals. They can also poison social groups and make them no longer enjoyable for you and other participants.
Are you spending your time with people who cast a black cloud over everything? Or how about with the group that sits in the corner at an event and mocks everybody?
How is that working out for you? Are you happy?
I’ve had to do this reality check for myself many times, and I still do. I’ve been the king of commiserating and a mocker with the worst of them. Nothing good has come out of it, ever. I would leave feeling worse and no closer to my goals. And how do you know you aren’t the target of these peoples’ destructive diatribe when you walk away? You don’t, and you probably are.
Because people and attitudes like this are so common, it’s easy to treat this behavior as acceptable. We live in a society of 24×7 news that’s all negative. War, shootings, economics, scams, scandals, and celebrity gossip. And something about how we’re wired compels us to watch like a bad car accident.
My challenge to myself, and to you, is to stop putting up with it and turn it all off.
The other day I snapped a pic of a comedic moment with my roommates and uploaded it via Facebook Mobile with the caption “Our dryer ties knots better than a boy scout.” Here’s the photo (starring my roommate Nick):
Then a couple nights ago I called Steve Bliss, one of my two co-authors on Virtual LEGO and guardian of the LDraw Parts Library. I haven’t talked to Steve in a couple years. When his wife Kristin learned it was me on the phone, she yelled across the room “your dryer ties knots?”
What a great practical reminder of the power of the Facebook newsfeed.
“Lifecasting,” or broadcasting your activities via the web and social networks like Facebook are fundamentally changing the way we relate to each other. This is both exciting and scary (and possibly even creepy depending on who you accept friend requests from). These tools have given us the power to passively stay “involved” in others’ lives without us even realizing it. It’s only surreal moments like these that serve to remind us of what we are active participants.
And for the record, both Steve and Kristin have recently made the cut to my new “trusted” privacy group on Facebook, so I don’t care what they know about my dryer’s activities.
Everyone out there who follows a web-two-point-oh personality has probably heard by now about Gary Vaynerchuk’s “Good People Day 08″ initiative (short video), where he challenges everyone to talk about good people you know. Here are just two of the ones I’d like to highlight:
Jason Jacobsohn of Networking Insight
Many of you in Chicago technology know Jason from his work at the Chicagoland Entrepreneurship Center, KMG Enterprises, and through his blog, Networking Insight. I don’t know Jason very well yet personally, but from the several interactions I’ve had with him I can say he’s a great guy and someone who ‘gets it.’ He’s been gracious and helpful to me each time I’ve come to him with a question, and I believe him to be trustworthy. The more I see come out of Jason, whether it’s good content on his site, how he keeps in touch with people, or his upcoming event, the Great Chicago Networking Extravaganza, the more I see that Jason is a good person well deserving of his success.
Kelly McKiernan of BZPower and LEGO
LEGO fans out there will probably know Kelly from the Bionicle community site BZPower. Kelly has been a mainstay in the LEGO community for years and has used his unique combination of web development, administrative, and interpersonal communication skills to be a driving force behind many community projects. In many cases, Kelly taught me the meaning of “cooler heads will prevail” by living it out in the numerous conference calls, emails, and online discussions we participated in together. From working with him, I know he’s an invaluable asset to any team that must bridge the challenging gap between technology and business interests while navigating political minefields without setting off (m)any mines. ;^)
On Saturday morning I had coffee with Greg Cross, a LEGO fan who I met at BrickWorld last year. Through the conversation I pulled up an old presentation, one of many I gave on the LDraw system for creating virtual LEGO models. Since I’ve lately been thinking about LDraw again, and since I’ve recently talked to a few non-LEGO friends about the software and (shameless plug) my book, I thought I’d upload it and share. Enjoy!
Note: It looks like some of the images didn’t convert properly and transparency didn’t work on some. Try not to let that distract you :-)
Posted on 1 April '08 by Tim Courtney, under LEGO. No Comments.
