Thursday, March 12, 2009

Lies, Cries, and Shattered Family Time.


I work in a restaurant that has a television mounted behind the bar. In front of the bar there is a column that measures 3 feet wide, which hinders the view of the television from several points of view. There is only a handful of seats that provides access to viewing. Countless times in my career as a server, customers have asked to be placed on a special wait list for the tables that provide a good view of the television. Mind you, this even occurs when there are tables available to sit in!

My favorite episode of this situation took place during football season. A mother and son were sitting at a table that was just barely blocked by the column. They were waiting for the third member of their party, the dad. Not realizing that I could see them, the mother whispered in her son’s ear for several seconds. They waved me down and when I approached their table the son began crying. The mother explained that he was upset because he could not see the television and he had been waiting all week to watch the game that was on that night. I told them they could switch tables and when the game started the son did not look at the television even once. However, when the dad arrived he spent the rest of the meal staring at the television, not once glancing away from the screen.

There are many things wrong with this situation. For starters, the mother used her son as an excuse to get in view of a television. She connivingly asked her son to cry, to put on an act of sadness. Then, the act was not even for the good of the whole family. It was just so that the dad could watch the game. The family could not even spend 45 minutes together without the view of a television.

Television is an intruder. It interrupts potential family time and steals precious moments away from parents and children without them even noticing. While one may argue that television is something that brings families together, something which they can gather around, I argue that it drives a wall between them because all interaction and communication is lost. It is impossible to both watch television and build relationships.

“One is always watching television when one is watching television rather than having any other experience” –Marie Winn, Plug In Drug.


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