I quit cold turkey. About three years ago, I simply stopped watching television. Within the last month, I have regressed and am now watching two shows: Greys Anatomy and Modern Family.

Already I can tell that this was a bad life decision.  

I should not be allowed to watch television. And, here's why...

• I become obsessed. I am a junkie. Once I enter their world, I must know everything about the characters and the plot. When I watched Big Brother, I'd spend at least two hours a day on fan sites tracking the things I missed from one episode to the next. I am that person. I read episode guides, search for spoilers, stalk trailers and fan sites... I am not satisfied with just what fits that small weekly program window. I need to know more. 

• I develop an emotional attachment to the characters. Have you ever found yourself praying for a fictional character? I have. The characters become my friends, and I start rejoicing and mourning for them like I would any other friend. When I have to go two months without finding out what happens to my friends (damn you Grey's Anatomy!), it honestly stresses me out.  Will Meredith be okay? Will they get their daughter back? I need to know NOW!

• I can't control my overactive imagination. The biggest reason I stopped watching tv was the fact that my mind kept running away from me. I found some of my favorite shows to be too sexually provocative or violent. Fixating on who was sleeping with who and the most creative way to murder someone was really starting to mess with my mind. I was too weak to fight the corresponding mental pictures, and I just needed to clear my head.

• I waste time better spent doing other things.  Within 36 hours, I watched an entire season of Modern Family. That's 1ike 10+ hours watching television. I could have read an entire book or watched five documentaries or had coffee with seven or eight people.  The average American watches four hours of television every day! What if that time was spent with friends or exercising or reading?

• I waste relational energy that should be spent on real people.  Though I seem like an extrovert, the truth is that I need to be alone. I need time away from people and away from the emotional stress of investing in people. My anti-social times allow me to better invest in face time with others. The sad truth is I have wasted some of that face time by staring at actors on my computer screen. I honestly get so frustrated with them sometimes that I lose my patience with real people. 

Maybe I am just strange, but some how I don't think I'm the only one who should be mindful of their television consumption. I'm not pulling a Mama Boucher and saying that television is the devil!  For the most part, I see no reason why entertainment isn't permissible. But, I do think we should ask ourselves if the amount of television in our lives is beneficial.

Sometime it is. This summer, I watched films and television shows almost every week with my friends. It was a bonding experience and a way to unwind. Beneficial. When I've watched Grey's or Modern Family recently, it's been alone and mostly in procrastination or boredom. Honestly, at the moment, I could find something more beneficial to do with my time. 

With that said, I'm putting myself on an 1.5 hour a week television limit - if you do the math, that's just enough time to fuel my current television addictions. To be honest though, if I didn't have friends who I talked about the programs with, I would consider cutting out television all together.

“I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive.  No one should seek their own good, but the good of others.  - 1 Corinthians 10:23-24

My recent television consumption isn't good for me or the other people in my life. Just sharing some thoughts as I strive to ask why I do the things I do and whether or not they're beneficial and constructive.