The Ubiquitous Scourge - Rich Lowry - National Review Online: "Television is the most ubiquitous and insidious force in everyday American life. If it were a drug, it’d be illegal, and federal agents would be raiding the studios of the networks. If it were a foodstuff or tobacco product, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg would ban it, and other cities would follow suit. It’s none of those things, of course, and its deadening influence steadily spreads.Whenever I see a TV on I always try to turn it off. Do you? Why not? And why haven't you read this yet?
Ben Berger of Swarthmore College notes that in 1950, fewer than 10 percent of U.S. households owned a television. Today, in the average American household, TVs outnumber people. It’s now considered a deprivation to be limited to watching The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills only in the family den. As of 2009, we were watching more TV than ever — on average, more than five hours a day. (Which makes you wonder: How does that leave any time to play video games?)
This inexorable trend mostly serves the cause of sloth, stupidity, and superficiality. “Television,” Berger writes, “makes us fat, lazy, inattentive, unsociable, mistrustful, materialistic — and unhappy about all of that. It cheapens political discourse, weakens family ties, prevents face-to-face socializing, and exposes kids to sex and inures them to violence.” Besides that, it’s a boon to its viewers."
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