ByeBye broadcasts, hello to a new frontier

I do not like TV. It flashes and bosses and sells and is coercive and compelling and is, for the most part, a complete tool of the corporations. Every single thing I have enjoyed or learned from TV that was good or necessary, I could have learned somewhere else.

I do like movies. I think they are works of art, complete works, and an experience. I like NetFlix and whoever invented it. I like the idea of movies because, like books, you are sitting down to a whole story. Even the dumbest movies are a complete work made by the same people, and you are not being mostly swindled or sold something besides the occasional Coke spot or what have you.

I like video games. Both my 9 year old and my 6 year old went from early readers to avid, skilled, soild speedy readers from video games. They also went from C-A-T to writing little stories through their prospective video games, both at age 5 to 6. Video games can create scenarios and story lines that you or your child would never be able to "experience" otherwise: driving a racecar, flying in space, winding through a jungle maze, defying gravity, solving mysteries, riding on the backs of animals, battling creatures made from their own creation, slamdunking with Jordan, skating with Gretsky, getting Par on a golf course that rides the rim of the Grand Canyon, saving the world...

The opponents of video games say that kids are sitting still too long, but when I say kids are sitting still too long in school, I get puzzled looks...has anyone heard of the Nintendo Wii? you hardly sit still playing this one, our kids and friends were dripping sweat the last time we played this wonderful new system.

We are going to be getting rid of TV soon, or at least pay-TV. Our satellite contract wears out soon. We get free antenna tv in the kitchen, which includes PBS and that is nice for lunchtime. Mister Rogers is about the gentlest show I ever saw. I use TV as a babysitter far too much, and this summer, weaning off of it will be good. I want my kids to watch movies, and they can play video games and CD-ROMS, too. but money is tight, tight, tight and I will be ecstatic to stop paying The Man 60 or more dollars a month to program us all.

Yes, I like Survivor, and I will watch plenty of other stuff too once I plop my lame self onto the couch and am magnetized with my bag of chips or what have you. But I don't LOVE it. What I do LOVE is freetime, my time back, to do all the other things I think I don't have time for. Like reading, writing, thinking, walking, biking, cleaning, playing music, listening to music, dancing, jumping, talking, debating, blogging! :)

NetFlix also has tons of TV show compliations. For some of the quality programs we could always watch them as concious choices, as a set.