TV

The television is the thing that most influences us without us even knowing about.  Since we are kids we watch TV.  We see others watching TV.  And that isn’t necessarily good.  There are commercials out there to manipulate little kids into buying a product.  Experts are out there to make kids want and make their parent buy them whatever they want.  They are going into kids’ houses, schools, and even bathrooms to figure it out what they like the best.  They are even getting into their brains!  The Un-TV assignment was essential to notice something that is going on without us knowing about.  When I watched TV with the sound off, it got confused and I had no idea what to look for without being told.  The shows didn’t make much sense muted, but the commercials did.  It was a bit scary.  It knows what you want.  It knows what you like.  Even without the sound it takes the attention away from you.  It takes you away from the reality in one way to make you buy what you don’t have- and what you don’t need.  However, unlike the “nothing” assignment, I didn’t see much while watching TV turned off.  I did notice though, how much time is important to us. Time become very important when you have nothing else to do.  We need to focus more on that.  Should we really depend on time as much as we do?

Nothing

It's funny how much you do when you do nothing.  Last week in class we had an assignment that seemed a little odd: do nothing for 30 mins.  At first I was like, what? nothing for 30 mins? this makes no sense.  Then, as the explanation went on, I figured it might be worth it.  I went to Disneyland that week so I thought I could try it there.  So I stood.  Did nothing for a while.  At first it seemed dumb and people looked at me like I had some problems.  My eyes couldn't stop wondering and it wasn't working at all.  Then, I remembered to focus on my breath. It would be much easier that way.  When I focused, my eyes also did.  I stopped wondering around and started doing nothing.  Or should I say a lot?  Every detail was vivid.  Little things made sense and i could pay attention a bit more.  I had never tried it before.  Maybe now, I can think of doing this a bit more often.