TV & Me

The film about the television and the children really resonated with me. I grew up watching a whole lot of television. Probably too much. But despite my addiction, I felt that the programs that I watched didn't hinder my creative growth, but rather caused it to flourish. It gave me a framework to which I could construct a world with characters in it when I stepped out the door to my house and into the dreamscape that was my back yard.

All of the sudden I was not just a Jedi or a Super Saiyan but rather had the powers and the worlds of both, and thus creating a new world, I could be the Hero and was in control of my fate and destiny in this world. It was beautiful. I would spend hours outside just imagining the events that were taking place in my imaginary world. My bike became a landspeeder. Trees became missal turrents. And the sun became the source of my energy, without which I would not be able to defeat the evil around me. All of which were ideas that came from the after-school TV programming.

Now, I'll be the first to admit that too much TV for children (or anyone for that matter) is not a good thing. But that is true for the consumption of any product. Let's not through the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak. TV has had great benefits on the exploration of imagination and should be embraced as art form. But it should be equally be under constant scrutiny for being such a mass consumed medium.