Television seems wrong to me

I was always made fun of for not having television growing up and truthfully, it never really bothered me. I was smart enough to realize and understand that, what I was doing was not something wrong. I was actually quite flattered when someone says that I don't have TV, hence made me absolutely clueless on what is happening in the media.

Because let us all be real, mostly (not all) what they portray on TV is absolutely garbage. At least here it is.

I live in Malaysia and people at the time revolved around television and social media of course but I'll get back on how that is also sad, so I would understand why me growing up without TV was so confusing and sounded so odd to most people. It does not help when I top all of it with my very nonchalant reaction. Trust me, where I went to school, anything that was not done within the majority becomes a matter to degrade. So, I wouldn't take anything "harsh" to heart, because really I was fine.

When I was around 13 and 14, I was always occupied my time with facebook because as a growing teen, I had to interact to people and socialize. No, I was not one of those teens that preferred to stay at home and read books all day rather than talk to girls my age, I was normal (too normal). Although I did loved books and still do, the only problem was, there was no one that could relate to me, so fitting in was hard.

Wanting to fit in so hard has led me to dive in the various contents of television whenever I went for a sleepover at a friend's house or when my friends talk about the latest episode of last night's drama. So in a way, I had never truly grew up without TV. The correct phrase is, me and my family didn't have a TV of our own,but I went and hung out with it anyways.

I was so occupied with wanting to seem 'cool' and informed that I neglect the toxic and degrading messages the content my friends was watching at the time. The saddest part was, It took me years to realize that the television industry had been picking me apart in the worst way as a teen girl growing up.

But is it really television to blame? I mean, I must sound bitter for blaming it all on the television industry. I could just take on my own responsibility and not watch it. But could you really do that? Just let it be? Just let it happen? On and on until you have children of your own? Why does it matter? It's entertainment after all.

It matters when so many, not only girls, but teen boys, grow up to accept the norm of their society. The norm of their society includes, "boys will be boys", self hate translates to being humble, being confident means your arrogant, self love is a sign of a woman's journey to "bitchyville", that it is okay to risk it all for a man just because you are a noble woman, that it is normal for a girl to go through such harsh experiences just because she's a girl and there is no use of changing anything, that it is okay and considered manly for men to punch each other for a single woman or a single position, that it is considered girly to cry as a man, that being less successful than your spouse makes you less of a man and more degrading things that we put upon ourselves as a kid growing up.

But if you are conscious enough and aware of what television can do to your brain and how you think, it would probably be less of a problem,right?

Well that is unlikely to happen, because as a child, your brain develops with whatever information it has around you and if misleading television content was the only thing around to feed on, then misleading television content it is. Children, sadly, don't listen, they imitate what you do. For example, if a mother was to say that her daughter can't stay on the television for too long,but she herself as a mother does not pry herself from the television, that request she made towards her daughter would probably be ignored and thrown out the window. But if the mother, was, to say grabbed a book instead of watching television all day, the daughter would probably do the same. It depends on what age she is really.

If only we can change that.

But how? Not having tv at all?

Well, it is not a bad idea. A lot of people would expect children that grow up without tv become less informed and more reserved. But with the era of technology and media,advancing at such a fast and overwhelming rate, it is safe to say that, leaving television does not sound that bad after all.

It is true when people say that, the internet is a much more complex and dangerous place, compared to television. But aren't all the things in the world complex and not easy to comprehend?

In my humble opinion,the internet does not filter and if we were to find the truth, we could probably get our hands on it.

Television however, is a whole different story.