why i (and everyone else) watches

I've been thinking a lot about how I watch a ridiculous amount of TV because why?  There has to be a pretty solid reason since hours of my week are dedicated to fictional characters and their lives, which don't actually affect me.  Sure, we can learn things from television and experience situations we'll never face in reality, but is that it?  It's just a tool?  There's no way people are laying back on the couch with a remote in their hand just because they're hoping to learn or experience.  More likely they're hoping to not think for an hour.  And while I watch more than the average person, I know next to no one that doesn't spend some valuable time staring at a story on screen.

When I was little, it was mainly to avoid going outside.  I hated outside with the sun and fresh air and the people.  Inside was better with a little Barney and maybe some Rocket Power, it was simpler and safe and solitary.  I wasn't some weird child shut-in though.  I played sports and went to school.  I actually quite liked reading (as long as nothing bad happened to anyone ever - including but not limited to divorced parents, which I just couldn't handle).  Rules were set early on in my childhood about how much TV I could watch and when; they were pretty typical, only after homework had been completed and chores had been done.  Chores that I was certain my mother made up purely so I would miss the first 3 minutes of whatever sitcom I was newly obsessed with.  Regardless, getting downstairs for my half hour of TV was the ultimate goal.  Again, why?  I had just as much fun playing school with my friends or cards with my family, but when my mom wasn't home and it was just me and my dad, we'd cook up some meat and potatoes then bring them downstairs and pop in a movie.

It wasn't just me right?  I may be an extreme case, but it's not like I was the only kid that enjoyed some time watching stories unfold with beautiful people at the helm.  I mean, I went to school to study this stuff along with hundreds of other students, so there's no way it's just me.  The more I talked to people living on my floor or sitting next to me in class,

I realized there's an insane amount of reasons we get joy from immersing ourselves in the unreal.  For some it's about diving into a world where vampires and werewolves roam the earth, for others it's about understanding the world of advertising in the 1960s because who's going to read a book about such a thing, and for a few it's all about that anti-hero and his ongoing fight to save lives while popping vicodin.  Regardless, it's characters with a problem that you find yourself invested in despite telling everyone you could stop watching right now if you wanted to.  You don't even care about next weeks episode, I mean they obviously won't die in that explosion...right?  Of course not...but maybe one more just to be sure.

So that's it then?  It's these fictional people and their fictional issues?  This still doesn't explain why we care, why we watch.  Or does it?  Maybe it's all just serving as a well-crafted distraction.  We all have our own daily struggles; could be getting up every morning and going to a job you hate, could be learning how to stick up for yourself and telling your family to leave you alone, could be resisting the urge to grab a bottle of vodka and crawling into bed.  No matter how big or small, there's something we're all dealing with (or more often ignoring) that's sitting in the back of our mind, and an hour of Friday Night Lights might be just the thing to push it further away.  I won't lie... this has got to be the exact reason I've seen every episode of Friends more than three times each.  But this isn't always my reason.  Sometimes I want to be entertained.  Pure, unadulterated entertainment it's supremely satisfying, don't you think?  If you watch It's Always Sunny, you definitely understand what I'm saying.  No one watches that show to understand the world or learn anything.  Unless what you're trying to figure out is how to survive in the world as a horrible person, which does seem harder than one might think.

And lastly, the reason most professors seem to believe is the reason: we want to understand a world we'll never be a part of ourselves.  This has got to be why I watch Sons of Anarchy and Shameless.  Neither are very happy and they honestly aren't too good at distracting from your own problems because you're watching people struggle the whole

time.  All it does is remind you how awful life can be when you're backed into a corner.  But then there are those miraculous moments when they're all on the same page as something not tragic happens and they get to hug and laugh and you get to believe that things are okay sometimes and your life is nowhere as bad as theirs so you can totally handle your shit.  To be honest, I know they're characters and someone with a great imagination and a laptop is the one actually creating their strength and defiance, but that doesn't make this stuff any less inspiring.  If Fiona can take care of her siblings with an often non-existent paycheck, an alcoholic father, and an absentee mother, then I can most definitely study and pass my finals.  There's a courage in characters that's contagious if you're able to watch with the same dedication you gave to memorizing lines of Anchorman.

In conclusion (yes, I just said in conclusion like this was a paper for a 4th grade English class), we watch because we've developed a relationship.  That could be with the Bluth family or the town of Mystic Falls.  It could be with the essence of Downton Abbey or Pawnee's Parks Department.  In spite of knowing it's all fake and recognizing the importance of leaving the comfort of your favorite screen, we watch because we've allowed ourselves to create a (unhealthy) relationship with a world we only get to experience once a week (or for a few blessed days on end if you're binge watching).