Even though I was confident the T.V. ban wouldn't affect my life, when Justin reminded us that the ban was taking place this week, I became nervous. What if my husband watches television while I am doing my homework and I accidentally look? What if I become so bored at work that I accidentally go on Youtube and watch some videos? I realized that although I don't watch T.V. for news and entertainment, I did use the internet for those things quite often. Therefore, this ban would affect me in many ways I never thought of.
Wednesday and Thursday were easy days for me. I was too busy with school and work to even think about television or videos of any sort. The only difficulty I encountered was with the election results. I was curious as to who won the race for Ramsey County sheriff because I had a close connection with Bob Fletcher; I was also interested in who won the governor's race. I couldn't watch the television for results, so I had to rely on the internet, because I had no newspaper. It was awkward looking for the 2010 results online. I looked up the results on the Secretary of State website by county, city, precinct, etc. and it was confusing. I just wanted an overall simple answer. The website also stated that all results were unofficial until certified by the State Canvassing Board, which confused me even more. I don't know much about politics- either they win or they don't. I searched for Bob Fletcher and discovered that he was losing to Matt Bostrom by quite a lot. I didn't find out about the close tie between Emmer and Dayton until Wednesday morning when I was listening to the radio on the way to work. I didn't try to get the election results any other way. I supposed I could have talked to others about the election, but no one seemed interested.
Friday was the most difficult day for me to abstain from using the television or watching videos. After a long week of school and work, I just wanted to sit down and enjoy a movie, but that was forbidden. I purposely worked later than normal so I didn't have to come home so early. When I did get home, I just spent more time cooking and cleaning than normal. After that, I surfed the internet. I was on Facebook and E-Bay for quite some time. I was so tempted to log onto Netflix and watch a romantic comedy. Netflix and Youtube were only a few letters and clicks away, but I held out. I had a headache anyway so I just went to bed to put away all my miseries.
Access to news, information, and entertainment is so readily accessible. It comes in so many forms and we like to use whichever one is most convenient. For me, the computer is my most convenient tool. I use the computer for everything! I am with a computer for at least 5 hours a day! Computers are everywhere and more personal than the television. They are usually limited to an individual user, unlike a television where two to three people can share and watch with you at the same time. Not only that, with internet access, the videos you view are time efficient because you can forward them exactly to the section you want to view, not like T.V. where you have to wait for your news to come on and the commercials are at least 2 minutes long. Internet access is very hard for me to refrain from. It can do everything that radio, television, and print can do.
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