I dunno. I live alone, so a little background noise is nice once in a while:
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., Dec. 12 (UPI) -- A U.S. researcher says television makes it too easy for people to tune out family and friends during the holidays.
Glen Sparks, a communications professor at Indiana's Purdue University, says television creates so much background noise that it can be difficult to really hear what people are trying to say.
I also leave the TV on sometimes to keep my cats company if I'm going to be gone for more than half a day. I put it on the BBC-America channel for them, but then they started acting a little snooty, so now they get the Hallmark channel.
Comments
We do the same thing...leave the TV or the classical music on for the cats...doesn't help their "cattitudes" one darn bit, though.
But I agree that background noise is OK (since we really can't avoid it much)...it's when all these LOW-FLYING MD-11 cargo haulers coming into FWIA try to "trim our trees", or those obnoxious BOOMCAR thumpers shake the fillings from one's teeth that SERIOUS noise issues need to be addressed...
Maybe THAT'S why the cats are the way they are at my house...it's the "lack of respect" thing from both the neighborhood ground dwellers as well as the cargo pilots.
And the cats are picking up on that bigtime!
;)
B.G.
I was getting ready to respond to this post, but then lost my tran of thought - the news is on all the time in my office - is that a problem ?
This is relevant to me because some years ago I expressed to my parents my sincere interest in worthwhile conversation during family get-togethers, and my personal distaste (an involuntary reaction these days) for loud television precluding conversation at the party.
In some alternate American dimension this should be a no-brainer. I can't say that I find it so where we are.
I'm not a radical on the subject of TV; I watch a lot of it -- honest -- but if you pay attention to the dynamics of these family gatherings long enough, you see a pattern.
There are times when half the party attendees would have been better off staying home, since all we see of them after the meal is the backs of their heads as they jump up and down while scooting closer and closer in their chairs to whatever ball game dominates the boob tube. It doesn't have to be a favorite team, a key game, a critical moment in history or a Superbowl. It only has to be, well, a game on television.
That's too easy. I don't buy it as sports fandom. I think it's social laziness.
If you think turning off the TV for the adults for most of your next family holiday get-together is a shocking and anti-American party-killer of a suggestion -- don't blame me. They didn't all get that way because of me.
But I do recommend, for those with the courage, that you try placing the television out of center stage, at the very least.