TV Watching is Good

Feb. 14, 2008

Madam Toastmaster, fellow toastmasters, and honored guests:

How many of you have heard that TV watching is addictive, that it makes you fat, that it has too much violence for your own good? Therefore, watching TV is bad, Right? Well, I want to convince you to the contrary. I think TV watching is good. Very good.

Does the violence and ugliness on TV angers and depresses you. Does it make you want to shut it down once and for all? Well, let me tell you a story Dalai Lama likes to tell:

A shepherd went deeply into a mountain in Tibet, saw a meditating monk, and asked what he was doing. The monk said the world outside was too violent and full of ugliness. He wanted to do meditation in a quite place, to expel all evil thoughts and anger to achieve enlightenment. The shepherd gave him also sorts of insult and called him a useless parasite. “Everyone works for a living, you alone is here doing nothing but waiting to be fed!” The monk got angry and threw stones at the shepherd.

Dalai Lama’s message was: If you are detached from the real world, all enlightenment is useless. Yes, TV brings you the ugliness of the world. But, burying your head in the sand is no solution.

TV-watching makes you fat? I bet if you eat the same junk food while reading the Good Book you’ll get equally fat. TV watching is addictive? Yes, it makes you want to watch and watch that you don’t do what you are supposed to do and neglect your social life. I’ve done that, reading books to the point people call me a nerd. And I was reading good books.

There are good things on TV. Just let me share with you 2 good ones I experienced.

First of all, does anyone here against educating our children or the general public about science? Albert Einstein’s view of science is that science is not about memorizing scientific facts; it is about the process of defining the problem clearly and doing rigorous experiments to find the answers.

I watched a program called the Myth Busters, in which people are giggling and chucking and having fun trying to find out whether some scenes in movies are true or just myths. For example,

• Can you tie a few balloons to a little girl’s hand to lift her up in the air? You’d need more than 5000 balloons.
  
• Can you put salsa on the iron bars of a prison cell and connect a wire to the light bulb socket to erode the iron bars so that the prisoners can break them and escape? Yes, you can. And surprisingly DC works better than AC.
  

I can’t help thinking that letting kids watching giggling adults finding things out this way turn them on to science more than telling them how important science is. I can’t help thinking this one-hour episode defines the scientific process to me better than what Einstein could say.

Shortly after the last presidential election, I watched, on TV, the Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’Conner answering questions from school children about her view in deciding whether to continue the recounting of votes. She answered that her job, as a Supreme Court justice, was not to judge what was good for the nation but to judge what should be done according to the Constitution.

I remember my wife asked me why I had tears in my eyes. Let me tell you why. I saw a Supreme Court justice speaking to children sitting on the floor as she would speak to the congress. I saw how the Supreme Court is tied to the Constitution. I saw the opportunities the American school children were given. You tell me; if not on TV, where else could I experience this?

These are just 2 random examples. There are many more on TV waiting for you to watch. Free of charge.

Everything has its good and bad side. Love is good; love without discretion can be dangerous. Explosives can be bad, but we cannot build a tunnel without it. Same with TV watching; whether it’s good or bad, it’s entirely up to you. Don’t blame it on TV. Take advantage of it.

Madam Toastmaster.