Throw away your TV!

This is more or less the speech I gave at Toastmasters last week.

I'd rather go online than watch TV.

It's nearly two years since I moved into a flat on my own without a television.  I can honestly say there has not been one minute when I missed it.

What I've loved is the extra time it's given me to pursue my own interests, especially online.  I love the immediacy of the internet - I think of a question and within minutes I have an array of answers.  They don't always agree with each other, but that's OK, I can read them all, I can make up my own mind.  I'm constantly amazed by the scope too.  Think of a subject and someone, somewhere will have put something about it online.

I've discovered a vast treasure of information on subjects that interest me, like sustainability and self-development, cellular biology, natural health and even honey bees. 

Permaculture

One line of research will often spark another.  Something will be mentioned in passing, and I'll think, 'oh, I'd like to know more about that …' and I can, because I'm online.  So I open another window, and another row of tabs; I can have several windows waiting to be read and yes - hours can pass that way!  But they're really interesting hours, and I'm learning all the time.

Compassion in World Farming

To me, the internet stimulates thought and enquiry that way.

TV, however, deadens the mind.

Television dulls the senses, mesmerises, anaesthetises.

Have you ever caught yourself, in the middle of an advert break, wondering why you're still sitting there while they shout at you?  I always used to mute the ads, they'd drive me crazy.

Of course, these are fairly sweeping generalisations.  With all these things, it totally depends on how you use them.  One person may be very selective about what they watch on TV, while another may be a lot less discriminating about what they look at online.

But it seems to me that the internet offers almost infinite choice.  You can 'veg out' and just view things on YouTube or on the TV channels' websites if you want to.  I've watched the odd nature documentary like that, and I confess I am re-watching that fab satire of the 90s, 'Drop the Dead Donkey', via 4OD.  The internet offers more though: you can interact, you can read other people's views following articles, you can put your own view, you can meet people.

TV merely comes at you and makes profit for corporations.

A few weeks ago I took a step further and put myself on Facebook.  I admit to start with I was a bit scared of it, so I put myself on with a false name and a false moustache.  Joking aside, as I began to find out what it was really all about, I've been blown away by the possibilities.  It's not just a way of connecting people, it seems to me it is a great facility to escalate change and good in the world.  I have found out about even more campaigns, charities, communities, ethical businesses and individuals who are actively creating a new way of being in the world since I've been on Facebook.  And wow am I feeling connected!  It's so lovely to 'meet' people on forums, feeling you already have so much in common.  I have already made some friends from around the world that way.

We can all be heroes

Contrary to what people believe before they go on Facebook (me included!) you are also totally in control of what others can see, and there are layers to that control, it's very sophisticated. 

So - I'd rather go online than watch TV.

When I watch TV, the news is fed to me, homogenised, filtered.  Online I can find news websites I trust, I can contrast several different sites, I can read the comments that people post after the news.

On TV the news is almost entirely negative.  I have found so much to be positive about online.  So many people and organisations daring to do differently, to operate from the heart instead of for profit.  So much you just don't hear about via conventional media.

On TV entertainment is fed to me.  On the internet I can search for things that specifically interest me.

Women Waking the World

In front of the TV I'm passive (unless you call dialling in to keep Ann Widdecombe dancing for another week 'getting actively involved').  Online I can interact, I can feel involved, I can participate.  I can make contacts.

Online I can feel connected.

Yes Group Norwich

.