Cohousing-L Mailing List: The Television in the cupboard

[Robert P. Arjet (rarjet]

>we came up with the idea of a TV-on-a-trolley-in-a-cupboard 
 <snip> 
>And it's going to require a certain amount of effort to set it up,
>discouraging
>the flop-onto-a-couch-and-tune-out syndrome.

That would seem important to me.  I'm actually thinking about this a lot,
because I've been very much behind the idea of a media room, as I study
film for a living, and would love to be able to watch videos on a big
screen with stereo sound, etc.  On the other hand, it hadn't occurred to
me that a "media room" is another way of saying "TV in the Common House," 
an idea that doesn't thrill me.  What I do at home is exactly what's
proposed at Earthsong:  The TV is on a wheeled cart in a closet.  Pulling
it out and setting it up is a pain, and it keeps me from turning the TV on
out of boredom or laziness: if I'm too lazy to think of something better
to do, I'm also too lazy to mess with the cumbersome TV set up!  Thus, I
end up only watching TV when it's really what I want to do, not when I
can't think of anything else.  

In our last apartment, we had cable, and we used to bring the TV out every
Thursday night for ER, etc.  If we didn't put it away when we were done, I
often found myself on Friday watching all sorts of interesting things on
the History channel, et al.  My biggest problem with TV is not that it's
inherently evil, but that I, like a lot of other people, find it very easy
to slip into TV viewing as a "default" behavior when were bored or at
loose ends.  I think that a lot of what gets watched is not necessarily
very entertaining, it's just not-boring  enough to keep people from doing
something far more interesting which requires slightly more effort.  TV is
effortless, essentially free, and always at least somewhat entertaining. 
That's an awful lot for other activities--activities which are far more
beneficial to the individual and the community--to compete with.   If
there is an evil to TV, it's the way that it offers something just
entertaining enough, just soothing enough, just stimulating enough to keep
literally millions of people from doing things like playing scrabble,
going for walks, reading, singing together, etc, the things that would
actually make them happy, rather than just not-bored. 

So, a TV in a closet, wheeled out for occasional use.  Does this seem like
a good idea to others?

Robert Arjet
Central Austin Cohousing
http://www.austincohousing.org
Where valiant members of the housing cooperative are striving diligently
to exceed their quotas in the five-year plan and bring glory to the
international struggle for worker's cohousing!!

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