Why I Haven’t Owned a Television Since 2002 from Linda Zurich

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Oct 04

Toward the end of 2001, after much contemplation and a wonderful exploratory visit to California, I made a decision to relocate from the eastern seaboard and move cross country to live on the west coast.

When I arrived at my new home out west in early 2002, I made a conscious choice at that point in my life to forgo connecting my TV to broadcast cable. Instead, I only plugged it into a DVD player and used it exclusively to watch rental movies. Later that year I started using my PC to watch movies and gave away the last television I ever owned – for good.

Fast forward to today, and it’s been over 11 years now since I’ve owned a boob tube.

While such a choice might not be for everyone, I consider the decision to remove the television from my personal space and to remain TV-free ever since to have been one of the best, most profoundly liberating and mind opening decisions of my life.

Fed Up With Commercials

In the years leading up to my relocation to the west coast I had become increasingly weary of all the ads that are inevitably part and parcel of watching broadcast television.

A friend and I had a running joke that whenever a commercial came on, more often than not it would be trying to sell us one of 3 things: prescription (or over the counter) drugs, cars, or beer. We had both become pretty disgusted with being exposed to so many TV ads by the time I had decided to move, and this is one of the main reasons why I decided to take a break from watching TV once I had relocated.

Sick of Ads for Junk Food and Toxic Products

Besides having had my full of the aforementioned triumvirate of ads for drugs, cars and beer, I had become sick and tired of being subjected to a virtually endless stream of commercials designed to coerce me into buying all manner of other things I would never choose to purchase for myself. These included junk food from fast food restaurants, soda pop, poor quality, nutrient sparse processed foods, and a plethora of mass produced personal products, cleaning products and other so-called ‘goods’ the likes of which are invariably laden with toxic ingredients.

Had it With Vapid Sitcoms and Contrived TV Dramas

Besides the ads, another reason I wanted a break from TV was because aside from a precious few decent, well written and produced shows, more and more I was finding that the quality and intelligence of the television programming I was watching was seriously deteriorating.

Recognizing the Underlying Motives of Mainstream News

One further reason for deciding to unplug from my TV was a growing realization that the news being broadcast by the mainstream media was heavily biased.

This is due to the fact that all the big networks are either outright owned by huge corporate conglomerates, and/or are funded by such corporations via their purchasing of advertizing time.

It was become increasingly evident to me that the information being disseminated by TV news is often slanted to favor the interests of massive, soulless multinational cartels whose financial interests include things like poisonous petrochemicals, toxic pharmaceuticals, soil-destroying industrialized agriculture, and genetically manipulative biotechnology.

Dumbed Down Programming

The bottom line for me was that I had essentially begun to feel that my intelligence was being mightily insulted and that I was being manipulated psychologically just about every time I sat in front of my TV.

Many of the ads seemed downright dumb or even stupid to me, and it often felt as if they were actually designed to make me feel kind of dumb and stupid too.

Many of the TV shows I found myself watching also often seemed silly, unrealistic or inane.

And increasingly I was beginning to see through the propaganda (and at times even outright lies) being promulgated by mainstream news outlets.

Between the insulting ads, the insipid shows, and the suspect news, I had begun, after spending so much time in front of the TV, to have a very real sense of being disempowered while watching it.

It felt as if my innate abilities to think critically and to make independent decisions for myself were being systematically compromised and degraded after having regularly watched television for all those years since I was a young child.

TV-Free Empowerment

So I decided to pull the plug – permanently – thereby making a conscious effort to take my power back from that inanimate object.

And now, after 11 years of not being exposed to that medium I feel that I have only benefited from my decision to give it up. It feels as if my unconventional choice back then to become TV-free marked the beginning of a truly significant paradigm shift in my life toward becoming more of an independent, empowered critical thinker – one that is yet today still unfolding.

What about you? Do you limit television watching in your home?

This post was written by Linda Zurich

An avid independent researcher, writer, speaker, foodie, herbalist, gardener, lifelong lover of nature and perpetual student, Linda Zurich is the author of Detoxification: 70 Ways to Cleanse, Clear and Purify Your Body, Space and Life, and the Raw Fed Cats Ebook.

Dedicated to empowering people with the understanding that our bodies are imbued with a profound healing intelligence, Linda is devoted to broadening as well as sharing her ever evolving knowledge of the most natural and efficacious methods through which we may activate that innate healing wisdom.

Her writings on a wide variety of subject matter as well as information about her upcoming speaking engagements can be found at her website, Holistic Paths to Healing and Wellness, at www.lindazurich.com

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