Screen Time and Knitting

As most children of the 1950s, my brother and I grew up in a home with one small television set. Unlike our peers, we still had a small black and white TV long after others had moved on to larger colored models. And we had the added onus placed on us that television should only be watched if we had something productive to do while watching it. Grandma ironed while watching soap operas, peeled apples or potatoes while watching the news, mixed batters and dough with a wooden spoon during other programs. I was the queen of crafts as a child, an early crocheter and knitter and embroiderer, so I could justify watching almost anything. My brother, lacking such productive occupations, watched less television.

As good Catholic kids, it was not uncommon for one or both of us to give up television for Lent. I think we viewed it as visual candy, something that was enjoyable but not particularly good for us. I don't remember being insightful as to why this was so, and I don't remember deliberately choosing to fill the lack of TV watching with more noble pursuits, though I probably read a lot more books during Lent. As an adult, the few times I gave up TV for Lent I was a bit more purposeful in choosing to fill the time with the reading of “good”, if not downright spiritual books.

By the time we had kids I was more aware of the ups and downs of television watching and had deliberate purposes for the one television policy that so tormented our son. My explanation to our kids as to why we had only one set was in the interests of family unity. Their peers had their own TVs in their bedrooms, as did their parents. Everybody got to watch what they wanted to watch on their own, seldom interacting with one another while watching. We were not going to be that kind of family. We would watch television together. For the most part, it worked for us. Our girls could recite the battle cries of the movie Gettysburg as easily as our son could quote Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice. Nobody got to watch what they wanted all the time, but everyone had a say in what was to be watched. Our one television unity worked until the adolescent sport obsession took hold of our son. This coincided with the start of his telling his friends about his Amish upbringing. The two were related. Out of pity for our poor deprived son, he got invitations to friends' homes to watch significant football and basketball games. Though we usually gave him permission to go to their houses, he was always quick to point out if we had a second television set, he'd still be in our house watching the game, keeping the family unity intact...sort of.

In some ways, television watching, if it can even be called that anymore, is more controllable than it was for my childhood or even my children's childhood. DVDs, then streaming services made entertainment watching no longer tied to a station's schedule, but available when we determined we wanted to watch something. This is both good and bad news. Binge watching when I was a child was turning on the Million Dollar Movie which would show a single movie, such as Godzilla, once every night, Monday through Friday, and twice on Saturday and Sunday. Binge watching today is seeing all six seasons of Downton Abbey in as tight a time frame that eating and sleeping will allow. And if one has enough knitting or crocheting projects, one could justify watching Lady Edith getting her heart broken repeatedly as productive craft time. Just saying...

Some questions to ponder this Lent regarding the time spent before whatever we call television these days: How much time do we spend entertaining ourselves with what we watch? Are we doing it because we sincerely enjoy it, or are we just filling up time to avoid doing something else more productive, more valuable? Are we doing it alone or are we enjoying other people's company as we do it, maybe critiquing said entertainment afterwards over wine or coffee, tea if you watched Downton Abbey? What is the quality of what we are watching? Guilty pleasures are sometimes OK, but to paraphrase Huskins' question: Will the Kingdom of God be any closer to existing on earth as it is in heaven if I watch this show? Will I be doing myself spiritual damage if I watch this show? Am I brave enough to even ask these questions about my entertainment choices and, ultimately, am I willing to let God into the process of determining the answers?

The trouble is that the channels of entertainment – and television (being) the chief culprit – disorient more than they orient. Promising to make sense of the world for us, they merely multiply the collage of disconnected images and sounds and experiences that come at us. - David Henderson, in notes in The Next Christians

The only thing that consoles us for our miseries is diversion. And yet it is the greatest of our miseries. For it is that above all which prevents us thinking about ourselves and leads us imperceptibly to destruction. But for that we should be bored, and boredom would drive us to seek some more solid means of escape, but diversion passes our time and brings us imperceptibly to our death. - Blaise Pascal