For the Love and Hate of Television-Jacob Young

First of all, I'd like to somewhat respond to everyone out there slamming television for "killing useful brain cells" and "wasting everyone's precious time." To these comments, I'd like to say: chill out. Watching television is an activity that someone does by choice and for entertainment, it's not like watching TV 3 hours a day is in any way normal for most of us nor is it mandatory in any fashion. Television was invented for entertainment, in the past it would give a sense of relief from a hard days' work. Nowadays, however, things have changed a little. Not only is TV for entertainment, but also for news and spreading messages. If you think about it, pretty much everything that's on TV these days is either some form of news or some form of enjoyable entertainment. I think the concept of television is not at all a waste of time, however some people use it as an excuse to waste time. Because if you're going to waste time anyway, why not waste it watching a show or game that you enjoy watching? I could even go so far as to say that TV is directly backed up by the Declaration of Independence. In it it states that all Americans are entitled to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." I would say that television fulfills the need for the pursuit of happiness. People are happy when they watch TV, if they weren't then they wouldn't watch it. People have the instinct and the common sense to do things that make them happy and not do things that don't (except for mandatory tasks such as taking Calculus). So I guess what I'm really trying to get at is this: watch TV if you want to, it's your choice. If there's a show on that you like, go ahead and watch it if it makes you happy. If there isn't, then don't watch TV. TV is, in essence, the same concept as any other electronic device that can be used for entertainment. It is a medium of happiness. But all those comments and statements saying how TV is bad for you, that's not true. People have the choice whether to watch it or not. After all, it's not like we live in China, am I right?