Blog #5: Television

Why do you watch TV? Why do you not? What shows do you love or hate?

I watch TV because I am genuinely entertained by it, whether it's because it makes me think, or because it makes me laugh; I feel like that's a fairly vague answer and makes me seem a little shallow, but most people like TV, right?
I don't watch an excessive amount of TV, really. I watch things on Netflix considerably more than on actual TV, especially because I like to start a show kind of late and go through all of the seasons, like The Office. Currently my absolute favorite show is BBC's Sherlock; far too often I'll come into school and just talk to my friends about it and try to figure out every detail of the show, even after we've analyzed all of it multiple times. I also love Modern Family but I am, unfortunately, a season behind and I need to catch up on it. I started Doctor Who over the summer but I'm currently stuck in the third season because the current companion to the Doctor irritates me a bit more than she should and I'm considerably less motivated to watch it.
I don't really hate any shows, but my respect is lower for some specific shows because of the message they send. I think I might actually be amused if I watched shows like Toddlers and Tiaras but I don't want to get sucked in because it seems to me that it's fairly trashy to encourage parents to enter their toddlers into pageants, to make them think that being pretty is the most important thing in life, and to completely neglect even the concept of their futures, particularly concerning their college education. I understand that some parents will do it anyway, but it seems that making a TV show specifically about it just encourages them to keep doing it and encourages other parents.
This is kind of merging into another question, but regardless, I think television can be a good source of entertainment, but it's better in small doses and it isn't necessarily the best. (This may just be because I am the kind of person who could be just as entertained and maybe more so if you gave me a book and said I could read it all afternoon.) It seems to me that television isn't bad, but if one only watched television, they wouldn't be living for nearly as much.