Have you been watching a lot of TV during quarantine? I know I have, and I'm thinking of maybe watching even more, but the problem is I feel so guilty spending so much time on it. Here are some of the best ways I could come up with to help you justify binge-watching:
1. Watch only what you consider worth your time. This is important! If the show is not so funny, exciting or otherwise engaging that you would be choosing to watch it when you have less time on your hands, maybe you could try just not watching it. Like, if you think Tiger King is dumb, don't feel pressured by pop culture -- just abstain! (It's been working fine for me.)
2. Watch with a loved one. My family's been able to enjoy The Good Place, and now The Office, together during quarantine, and I watch other shows such as Alias and The West Wing with just my parents. If you're quarantined alone, try looking into the Google Chrome extension that lets you watch with someone else through video chat. I haven't tried it personally, but I'm told it works pretty well.
3. Multitask to the best of your abilities while watching. Some suggestions I've seen include exercising, cooking, cleaning, and crossword puzzles/Sudoku. My cousin's been playing board games with a sitcom on so that players can watch while waiting for their turn. Of course, some things you can never really devote any attention to at the same time as a TV show (like, um, listening to music, unless you put on closed captioning for the show, though it would probably still be pretty hard).
4. Take a break from watching TV. I hesitate to suggest this, because TV has brought me quite a bit of joy over the past few months and given me some quality time with my family (especially my parents), but if TV is literally all you've been doing, you might need to take a few days to detach. Take a walk (with social distancing). Read a book. Write a book. Keep a quarantine journal that you can someday pass on to your grandchildren as a historical document. Give yourself a little time to breathe before diving back into the black hole of Netflix.
5. Put what you get out of your TV to good use. Preferably, this will extend beyond having imaginary interactions with the characters in which you are a much wittier and braver person than you really are (wait, does nobody else do that?). I am a writer, so I can count every non-reality TV show I watch as "research." See my other blog for writing advice I took from just a few great (and not so great) films and TV shows. Not a writer? No big deal. Here are a few things you can do to engage with your TV on a more meaningful level:
1. Watch only what you consider worth your time. This is important! If the show is not so funny, exciting or otherwise engaging that you would be choosing to watch it when you have less time on your hands, maybe you could try just not watching it. Like, if you think Tiger King is dumb, don't feel pressured by pop culture -- just abstain! (It's been working fine for me.)
2. Watch with a loved one. My family's been able to enjoy The Good Place, and now The Office, together during quarantine, and I watch other shows such as Alias and The West Wing with just my parents. If you're quarantined alone, try looking into the Google Chrome extension that lets you watch with someone else through video chat. I haven't tried it personally, but I'm told it works pretty well.
3. Multitask to the best of your abilities while watching. Some suggestions I've seen include exercising, cooking, cleaning, and crossword puzzles/Sudoku. My cousin's been playing board games with a sitcom on so that players can watch while waiting for their turn. Of course, some things you can never really devote any attention to at the same time as a TV show (like, um, listening to music, unless you put on closed captioning for the show, though it would probably still be pretty hard).
4. Take a break from watching TV. I hesitate to suggest this, because TV has brought me quite a bit of joy over the past few months and given me some quality time with my family (especially my parents), but if TV is literally all you've been doing, you might need to take a few days to detach. Take a walk (with social distancing). Read a book. Write a book. Keep a quarantine journal that you can someday pass on to your grandchildren as a historical document. Give yourself a little time to breathe before diving back into the black hole of Netflix.
5. Put what you get out of your TV to good use. Preferably, this will extend beyond having imaginary interactions with the characters in which you are a much wittier and braver person than you really are (wait, does nobody else do that?). I am a writer, so I can count every non-reality TV show I watch as "research." See my other blog for writing advice I took from just a few great (and not so great) films and TV shows. Not a writer? No big deal. Here are a few things you can do to engage with your TV on a more meaningful level:
- Do some research to compare the show with reality. How realistic is The West Wing? Beyond all the sci-fi technology, how much of Alias might actually happen?
- Write a review of the show and post it online via the method of your choice (social media, a blog, IMDB, RottenTomatoes). I wouldn't recommend reading other people's reviews, though: for me, at least, that's almost as addictive as the show itself and much less interesting. Also, it might make you mad that people have such stupid reasons for not liking (or liking) a show.
- Analyze what you like and don't like about each episode. Yeah, maybe this is a writer thing, too, but just try it out anyway.
- Shoot quotes at your friends and see if they catch them.
- Take up a hobby inspired by the show. Thinking about the shows I watch, I might try martial arts, foreign languages, debate, speechwriting, wisecracking, or screenwriting (hey, that could apply to almost anything).
So, there it is: the best wisdom I can offer on how to feel less guilty about watching TV. This is coming to you live (not really, though, when you're reading this) from my house about a month into quarantine, where I have probably been watching more TV than anyone reading this article.
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