S. M. Hutchens has some good thoughts on television and the mass media [1]:
I have found that many people who have to maintain their minds at top form have an intuitive dislike of having them manipulated by the organs of the mass media, which they find not only stupid, but having a drug-like quality that does something they don’t like to the efficiency and quality of their own thinking. It’s hard to explain, but it’s an opinion I have found that people like us share.
Read the whole post [1]. Mass media does ineed have an addictive quality. I find that once I’ve begun watching television, a sort of chain-smoking-like quality sets in. I end up watching the next show that comes on, and the next, until my entire evening is consumed. While I don’t think that chucking the idiot box out the window is the only option, I do think that most of us could use much more moderation in our television viewing.