television | ADHD Information

Exactly the quote is "Religion is the opium of the masses"

So true.
well - i am extremely religious which is maybe why i don't need the tv so much...

each to their drug of choice, i guess.
there was a funny cartoon once i saw long time ago in a sunday paper (perhaps a garfield) i don't remember it exactly but someone was quoting Karl Marx saying:
 
"religion is the opium of the people"

adn the cat/whatever turned to stare directly at the tv with a very sardonic look on it's face....!?! I am not religious at all, love TV, like Adderall.

what is that Marx quote again?
"religion is the opium of the masses"

That about sums it up for me.I'm religious, love my adderall and watch ZERO tv. Go figure.

Actually the quote by Karl - that wacky commie was

"Religion - it is the opiATE of the masses" tomato tomahto who gives a rodent's botty?

I used to LOVE TV - the 70s it was my best friend.  I kept it on even when it was garbage as background so I never had it quiet.  My parents were very quiet - my sisters had their own things so it was painfully quiet around me.  I can't stand quiet rooms even now.  Feels like insanity.

Since there are no good sitcoms, few sci-fi dramas and not much for comedy I usually leave it on the CNN or weather channel.  I get a lot out of CNN as it's good to know what's going on. 

I miss the days where I could just veg and let three's company, hogan's heroes, mash, happy days - all the greats just come in my ears and make me feel like I was in a warm blankie.

 

[QUOTE=willc73]The TV seems to keep my mind occupied. It is a great drug, only if it
came in pill form.[/QUOTE]

Now, that's a great idea, Will!  Why don't you bottle it?

i have a real hard time being around other people for very long. i use the t.v. as 'company' that i can enjoy, and ignore at the same time.

i do like to watch, but like others here, it has to keep my attention. i love to learn, so discovery, hist. ch., jeopardy i like.

i like satire and humour, so there are a few animated shows i watch too. i live 20 miles from the real south park. i like that show.

like others here, watching t.v. is something i do on the go. if i'm tired, i can sit. otherwise i'm doing this and that, walking around, in and out of the room, not really paying attention.

The TV seems to keep my mind occupied. It is a great drug, only if it
came in pill form.

I watch loads of  TV.. the only thing is, I cant tell you everything that happened on the shows..

Usually I am using my laptop while watching ( like right now, I have Judge mathis Tivo'ed and I'm watiching that while I"m checking message boards.)

I also watch TV, movies, etc, while doing dishes, laundry etc.. I set up the house so that my sink, kitchen, couch etc. are all within viewing distance!

I think that I like the noise more than anything else, but I also enjoy the programming too.  CSI, Law and Order, judge shows, and all of the animal rescue shows on animal planet!

Television is the opiate of today's masses. Religion takes thought and dedication. Most people try to keep those to a minimum.

I started this thread and must admit I can stare at footbal games for hours if they involve my favorite teams at all. It seems more real, less contrived/obvious/boring.

I also like CNN and Fox News while doing something like internet or anything else.

But I watch far far less television than the average which is some ungodly number like 6 hours a day (maybe someone snappy wil look that up and post it).

Let's say it's six hours on average. What hope can be left for a society that spends six hours a day watching the mundane crapola that is sent to their sets?
or spends more than six hours wasting time on a crazy forum cos they don't want to pack??? I can't watch alot of TV.  I have to keep getting up during commercials to be able to stand it even during something I really want to see.  I have too much to do and it is too boring for me to sit all the time.  If I don't feel creative, I feel like something is missing and have to come up with some idea to break the spell.  I do like to have the TV on for noise I think.

Not to get off the topic, but at work I had to come up with things I needed to do on my feet to cover for my not being able to sit still.

Opps, excuse the rambling.  cynthiatweedle38669.6842708333If adhd people, as a whole, average the same amount of mind numbing hours of watching television that mundanes do, it challenges every idea I have about adhd.

Creative, resourceful, intelligent, easily distracted people, people who see the big picture quickly, innovators, people who have to strive NOT to finish the sentences of mundanes, easily bored people, these people surely watch less televisiom.
I watch almost none. Some History Channel, some Science Channel . . .Can't sit  still long enough.  If the TV's on, I'll watch it while doing umpteen other things.   So much to do!  So much too, so much ado, i do so much - but can't get anything done. [QUOTE=chjones]or spends more than six hours wasting time on a crazy forum cos they don't want to pack??? [/QUOTE]

Good point.
I'm sure many folks tonight watching television drivel would be shocked that I spend a lot of time online.
But I think I would argue this forum, and the online experience as a whole,  is very superior to television. Many would disagree.
I'm also a laptop tv watcher... i'm usually doing something on my laptop or some other paperwork or cleaning or anything else. It somehow occupies that small part of my brain that needs it so I can get other things done. Besides, watching tv alone makes me bored silly.Whether someone watches 6 hours of TV a day or spends time on a forum
is not really an issue.
A lot of people these days love to give thier " I am better than you,
because" speech. A persons lifestyle is thier own business. Whether they
watch TV, or spend all of thier time helping the homeless. It is all a
competition of the ego. People that get thier self worth from believing
they are better than you are fooling themselves. But so be it, the world is
filled with people like that.
I concentrate on making myself and my family live good lives in the
lifestyle we want to live and a lifestyle we deem appropriate. I have some
friends and family members that think they are better than me because
they have more money or have careers that they deem more worthy,
(doctors, lawyers). To that I say, who cares. I wonder, why won't this
world let people be happy the way people want to be happy. Maybe I do
watch TV, maybe I don't, but who am I to say that spending time watching
TV is worth less than chatting on a ADHD forum. Seriously people............
Maybe I should spend my time fighting in a war? Is that more or less
worth my time than writing this letter?or 'cause they dont want to do a term paper for school?? hee hee.. I'll get it done..... just not today......... LOLwillc - This way of thinking sorted out for me something like "don't have negative opinions of others - I have a negative opinion of people who do that."

??

:-)
Ok. It might have been more of an  " I am better than you,
because" speech. yeah, Glenn, it is a big target.
Be that as it may, it seem so incredible we watch so much and that so much of it is so bad.

It is raising children, it is many peoples only friend, it is the one of the most defining elements of society today.

I've already admitted that I watch it too, and that I waste time in ways others would find unfathomable.

*I* find television and its ubiquitousness (is that a word?? :-) unfathomable. If this opinion, or any opinion, is a dangerous trend, call me a revolutionary. Brand me The Resistance! Give me opinionated chattiness, or give me death. I only regret I have but one opinione to opine for my country. Now, in the blessed name of Elvis, I'll let the bullets fly (at my TV) and if I had a rocket launcher,
The point of what I'm saying is that I see no problem in having a negative opinion of watching too much TV, nor of thinking it is a poor decision on anyones part. I think probably this is where we have differing opinion.

I assure you I'm not upset - I enjoy the heck out of discussing stuff on these bulliten boards and I wish others would have a little lighter perspective too. But there I go again, deriding others :-)

I have in fact been through this same discussion recently, well, a similar discussion. That one was more along the lines of judging others. I've got opinions and I plan to fire them off. If I disagree with someone else's thoguhts or actions or even tastes, it doesn't mean I am some kind of supremacist, it just means I disagree.

[QUOTE=willc73]I guess that point of what I said was, my decisions of how I spend my
time isn't better than your decisions of how you spend your time. It
didn't have anything to do with degrading people for having negative
thoughts or whatever seemed to upset you. I in fact am a king of negative
thoughts. You should hear me when I drive. But if I yell at someone, I
never think I am better than that person because of what I do or don't do.

[/QUOTE]I guess that point of what I said was, my decisions of how I spend my
time isn't better than your decisions of how you spend your time. It
didn't have anything to do with degrading people for having negative
thoughts or whatever seemed to upset you. I in fact am a king of negative
thoughts. You should hear me when I drive. But if I yell at someone, I
never think I am better than that person because of what I do or don't do.

Not being used right now. The lack of it has only affected my wife. She says it's her escape from things. That is not at all what siad, but I guess if you didn't want to think about it
too much, it could be warped into that.

It was an opinion. Maybe you misunderstood, my letter wasn't really about TV, it is about a
way of thinking that was apparant here and everywhere else. There is no
war I am fighting.

WillC - if you fight a war - make sure it's worth fighting for in the first place.  I know that's a hot button but the way I feel.  There are wars worth fighting - and even at my age I would if needed (I'd probably drag the whole thing down), but just pick 'em right there.

TV is a diversion.  Email is a diversion.  So is our forum (after our questions are asked and answered anyway).  Reading too.  We do it to escape the unpleasant, the mundane. 

I love TV - it was like a parent to me at times (to paraphrase Bart Simpson).  But I now use it mostly as background and watch a couple of shows I like.  I love some of the CNN shows (anderson cooper and lou dobbs are 2 I love).  I love the "daily show with Jon Stewart" - he's one of the most brilliant and funny people on the globe - and so honest! 

For fiction most of my beloved shows get cancelled - proving to me that nielsen families should be gathered in the street and stoned to death.  Well at least purple nurples for all.  Melvins too.

I do love reruns of the star trek series (several), smallville is brilliant (filmed near me too!) and I've become hooked on "hi my name is earl" which is much funnier than anything in a while.  But most - I just like the blah blah so it's not quiet in my little home.

Anything other than our loved ones, our work and our social connections is just fill-in anyway.  People look their noses down on TV because well, it's easy to.  Big target.