The Experiment...

The experiment: Watching television and reading a book for half an hour and jotting down my thoughts and feelings afterward…

After watching television for half an hour I just felt the same way I felt before. I guess I was more relaxed now since I got time to just sit down and enjoy some time without doing anything educational. I think it depends what you are watching to make you have certain thoughts and feelings. For example right now nothing interesting was on so I just tuned onto Disney Channel. That’s a channel that I watch at times since I was a little kid. Right now I just finished watching an episode of Hannah Montana. I think the show is okay, I just watched it to make time go faster and at the same time get my mind off of the things that I should be worrying about. For example “OMG what am I doing? I should be typing up that paper that’s due on Friday (Manley’s class).” If I were to be watching a reality show then I would have learned about the experiences of another person whom I do not know, only by the use of DRDs I do. After watching such a show I may think about what may be going through their mind and how they should deal with a certain situation. If I were to be watching a show on National Geographic it would be considered education friendly since I am learning about things that are good to know. Overall after watching television it usually lets me relax and takes my mind off of stuff that I would be worrying about for a certain amount of time. It gives me a “break.”

I am reading the book Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri. I started reading it since yesterday in Manley’s class when he wanted us to do some independent reading. I didn’t have a book so I just picked this out from his library. Since I started reading it, I think that it is an interesting book. After reading for half an hour I felt relaxed in a good way. I feel the same way I did after watching TV. While reading the book I was able to relax and get away from the world surrounding me, I guess that’s a bit too strong for explaining what I was doing but it’s close to it. Usually adults say that reading a book is better than watching television since it’s related to education and it will make us “stronger readers.” I think that’s something they just say because they think that that’s what they are supposed to say. What if I were to be reading a book about something as useless as wasting my time watching TV? Would they still prefer reading over watching TV? I don’t know, but I guess people just say what they have to say but don’t seem to think about what they are saying. To be honest after reading this good book for half an hour I felt the same way as I did half an hour before after watching TV. I was relaxed and was able to get back to the work I should have been doing (homework).