Strictly Not Strictly

Introduction

This is a Seven Days In Post from September 2019, and is about how we all don't like the same TV programs, and when they come on what effect it has on our behaviour.

While television is entertaining and can be educational it can also numb us to what matters in our lives. There are many people out there whose lives are dictated by television, often a tiny fraction of what is available to watch, game shows, soap operas and reality TV become the staple for many watchers.

It happens with me, there are certain game shows like "Pointless" and "House of Games" that I like to follow over a week, and series I have picked up on and watched from start to finish include "Elementary", Dexter", "The Expanse" and "Supernatural" and some of those have inspired Vocal stories from me.

But while once we had to wait for the next episode, now we can watch a series end to end when we choose, although it's unlikely that anyone could do that with "Supernatural" as there are 327 episodes that would be nearly two weeks of non-stop watching.

However, TV can drive me to read, listen to music, go for a walk, or, like now write something. My blog is almost totally devoted to the books I am reading with associated music, and this piece is about the latest book I have picked up and why I am reading it now.

So you can see what TV makes me do.

Strictly Not Strictly

I do find Strictly Come Dancing as tedious as Come Dancing was, but that is life, we like different things and why I am not watching the big telly at the moment and writing this post. I would rather do anything (within reason) than watch a Dancing program.

The contestants all work hard and I appreciate this but they really don't catch my attention so I would rather write, listen to music, watch other TV and TED Talks on my computer or portable device. I loved Groucho Marx's quote about TV:

"I find television very educational, every time it's switched on I go into another room and read a book"

That's roughly what he said and is both funny and educational in itself. It's great when things cause you to do something that results in the creation of something.

So Strictly caused me to think about things and write this and watch an educational TED talk about satire today which is both informative and funny and educates you with some great ideas by Patrick Chappatte, so I've included it below. It includes some excellent cartoons taking on Trump, Brexit and more.

The song I was going to include is obviously "Come Dancing" by The Kinks, so I hope you are having a great Saturday night whatever you are watching.

Conclusion

I have said before, that I remember having only two TV channels and the situation where if you didn't see it live then that was it, you had missed it.

Today, thanks to digital streaming platforms and media such as DVDs and flash drives we can watch anything we want when we want. The irony being that if you have a legal DVD that you have to watch through an age of video telling you not to pirate the DVD, whereas if you get an illegal one you don't have to put up with that.

Thank you so much for reading my rambling piece and I hope I have given you the odd thing to think about and maybe even inspire or prompt you.