In the digital age, we’re absolutely flooded with content. With millions of books, movies, TV shows, video games, and more, there just isn’t enough time to consume it all. When there’s so much awesome content available, some things have to get cut more than others. Yet people are still shocked when I tell them that I don’t really like TV. So, in an attempt to defend my treason, this is why:
There’s no active participation
When I’m reading a book or playing a game, I have to be constantly engaged with the media in order to be consuming it. It takes all of my attention to read a page in a book or to progress in a game. When I’m watching TV, however, my attention tends to wander. Instead of being able to focus completely on the story in front of me, I need to be doing something else, whether that’s working or just scrolling on my phone. That makes me lose more interest, and it becomes a cycle. It’s much easier for me to stick with something that draws all of my attention from the beginning.
I can’t choose the speed of consumption
In a similar vein, I can’t choose how fast I consume TV. I read really, really fast, to the point where I can finish a 300-page book in only a few hours. When I’m watching TV, there’s no way I can speed up or slow down how fast it goes. That means I’m stuck watching a two-hour movie at a pace that, to me, seems horribly slow.
Adaptations aren’t the best
I can count on one hand the number of movie/TV show adaptations that have lived up to the glory of the book that inspired them, and two of those are different versions of Little Women. TV adaptations are supposed to be a great way for people who don’t like reading to experience these amazing stories. But because of how much content has to be cut along the way, the adaptations never truly live up to the books that came before them.
Processing TV is hard
This one may be more of a personal problem, but because I have horrible audio processing abilities, watching TV without subtitles is difficult. If I’m going to read, I’d much rather skip straight to a book rather than reading the subtitles (if there are any).
Now, none of this is to say that I hate TV. Cinematography is an amazing art form that has many different elements that other forms of media could never achieve. However, if I have to choose between ending my day watching a movie or curling up with a good book, it’s going to be a book almost every time.