You can do this, too

FOR my Lenten penance, I decided to stop watching TV news. This self-imposed fast is not easy to accomplish because knowing what’s happening in the world had previously become a craving, almost an addiction. I felt that if I were not updated on current events, I would be cut off from the rest of humanity.

But, as they say, “If you have a WHY, you can do any HOW.” Giving up my habit of watching TV news became less of a burden when I focused on why I imposed this on myself.

First, I realized it is a waste of time gawking at and listening to newscasters whose only talent is reading from the idiot board or teleprompter with a voice calculated to induce useless anxiety. Often, they would overly hype shocking and depressing events to heighten our sense of helplessness.

Originally, TV news was part of the public service requirements of television stations. But when TV news started attracting advertisers, thereby producing more money, they concentrated on generating more viewers by sensationalizing news, rather than truthfully informing the public.

Second, TV news has become a powerful medium for the entertainment and marketing business. TV news is almost always peppered with gossip about the rich and the famous whose usually mediocre lives and actions are inflated to make them appear big. Meanwhile, advertisers relentlessly sell us detergents, beauty products, junk foods, at the same time warning us about bad breath, baldness, obesity, high blood, diabetes, premature aging, and other modern-day maladies. They pump up our fear and paranoia, and then sell us cures that seldom work. Scratch the surface of TV news and you see the corporate agenda aimed at profit and mind control.

Third, TV news trivializes human events by focusing on the randomness of their occurrence, as though these events are devoid of meaning. Is there a war? Are there moral and legal issues involved in an issue, a crime, or controversy? Reporters seldom research for meaningful answers. They just interview key people in government, church, or society to get the latter’s comments. What they often achieve is not in-depth reporting but a collage of conflicting views that are shallow and unrelated, leaving the audience more upset and confused.

Finally, TV news conditions us to worry about problems that are too big for us to solve. And it makes us angry at our inability to do anything. Anger consumes energy very rapidly, and if long sustained, completely drains us. Perhaps this is why there is very little creative and beneficial work going on around us. We waste our energy working up all sorts of angst and anxiety over situations that are beyond our control, while neglecting or aggravating those that are within our power to alleviate.

So now, three weeks into my selfimposed fast, I noticed that I am less fearful and anxious about what’s going on around me. I hope I can continue doing this for a year, or even a lifetime. Replacing my daily TV news habit with one hour of silence is exhilarating. In silence, I think my own thoughts, rather than what television and newspapers feed me. Freed from distractions, I feel more intensely the presence of God who is not a spectator looking at the world from a distance, but a God who wants to lift us out of pettiness and cheapness that TV news has hurled us into.