The land of TV

When I lived at home television was not an important part of my life. I couldn't watch TV after my dad got home, and my mom didn't like me watching TV so it was never a big after school activity. I was however allowed to watch it when I was home sick. 'Allowed' is of course a cute way of saying my parent's weren't home and I couldn't sleep ALL day. When I was little, I watched Saturday morning cartoons until my parent's woke up, but that was about it. I remember the kids in my high school talking about their favorite shows and what big surprise was on the latest episode, but I never joined in. I didn't watch those shows and frankly liked to do other things better. My mom says that TV made me cranky and put me in a bad mood for the rest of the day, whether or not that is true, I don't know, but TV wasn't a part of my childhood. For the sake of honesty, there were always a few shows I liked to watch if they were on when I was watching, like say Boy Meets World, and I am still a huge fan of West Wing, but that's about where my passion stopped. Until I got to school.
Even though I have never had a TV in my room, the new phenomena of TV online caught me. I started following certain shows, and I hate to say, I still do. Not that it matters, and it's not why I watch TV, but I do fit into those conversations a little bit, and I understand how enthralling the story lines can get. Why I found this out at college is somewhat of a mystery, but I can guess it is one of those things that happens when there is no parent supervision. Netflicks and Hulu don't help either...free TV whenever you want. I would never say that TV has gotten in the way of my studies, it hasn't, but I still feel guilty when I put down a textbook for a break and go online to catch up on a show. I guess my parents did a good job with me.
I certainly never had a problem with Turn the TV/electronics Off Week. It so happens that today was the start of that for my mother's second grade class, and oh how complicated it is now. All we were to avoid was TV, but now they want to know about video games, i-pods, computer games, and every other electronic they own. I certainly love the age we live in with all the gadgets we have, but I do sometimes miss the simplicity of electronics in my childhood. I guess I'm getting old.