Driving With the Radio Off

We are in danger of turning our lives over to strangers for the sake of entertainment.  We watch TV, listen to the radio, surf the internet and are otherwise plugged into something almost all of our waking hours.  We are not getting this entertainment for free.  The media we are tuned into is rife with commercials, loaded with innuendo, and full of subtle propaganda.  Yes, we get to choose the radio station, web site, or TV channel, but how much of the content is what we tuned in for, and how much of it is the message we are being forced to listen to?  A one hour TV show has 20 minutes of commercials.  One hour of radio is about the same, and the internet is not only going to provide you with pop-ups, your computer has to swallow a bunch of cookies that will report your surfing habits to whomever is clever enough to ask.  

More dangerous yet, it's not just retail sellers who are tying up your time with commercials.  Politicians advertise, government agencies advertise, religions advertise, anyone-with-an-idea-to-promote and in-want-of-your-ear will advertise and you will be forced to listen.  (Ever wonder why the commercials on your TV blare out yet you have to turn up the regular programming?)  But wait, there's more! At the end of your favorite TV show, watch the credits.  One of the first lists you will see is the sponsors who had products displayed on the show itself.  The auto maker, the medical company, the appliance maker, just whoever wanted to have their product or service prominently displayed for you to ogle and wish for.  

Listen to your own mind.  Listen to what people told you today and ponder those things.  Those things that real people in your life told you last night were important.  Did you give them a second thought on the way to work this morning or were you listening to a couple of people on the radio nattering on about the weather?   What was the last thing you said to your best friend?  Did it matter to them?  Have you given your last serious discussion any thought?  If not, why not?  Have you been too busy watching TV to think about it?  If the radio is always on, the TV always on, the computer always on, just when will you take the time to think about what real people, people you have chosen to be in your life, have to say in your life?  

It comes down to a battle for your time.  Producers of media would like to have it all.  They would like your whole life to be involved with listening to them.  They don't want you to sit quietly in the car on the way home from work and ponder.  They are going to provide just enough entertainment to hold your interest so you will listen to their thoughts (or their advertisers anyway).  They have billions of dollars and you've bought all the latest equipment so that their message is much easier to get than, say, a suggestion from a real person.  Heck you knew what equipment to buy because the advertisers told you!  You never really stood a chance.  

There is a constant battle for your eyes and ears, a giant industry is doing the fighting, burning millions of wasted dollars to influence your thought and I think it's time we all stopped the waste.  It's time to stop the fighting, time to stop the incessant wrangling over the measure of time we have to use in our short lives.  It's time we ended this.  It's time to turn off your TVs, shut down your computers ( this article is just about done), and learn to drive with the radio off.