Raise your hand if you never watch TV

Randi Kreiss

I’ve never met anyone who says, “I watch TV all day, and I especially love ‘The Real Housewives of New York City,’ ‘Jersey Shore’ and ‘The Biggest Loser.’ ” Most folks I know claim not to watch TV at all — not ever. Well, hardly ever.

And when they do admit to tuning in, they say their taste runs to “Masterpiece Theater” productions of “Agatha Christie” and PBS documentaries on the life cycle of the monarch butterfly.

Bushwah! Everyone watches the tube, and the proof of that fact is how dumb we are. Admittedly, the evidence is circumstantial, but it is compelling. Entertainers like Jay Leno do bits where they ask young people questions like, “Is Africa a country or a continent?” thereby showcasing their abysmal ignorance. I mean, too many of these kids are really stupid, and I believe that TV plays a significant hand in the death of their young brain cells.

If I were raising children today, I would severely limit TV time — in fact, all “screen” time. I wouldn’t ban it entirely, because some programs and some computer stuff have great merit. But television is overused by parents and over-watched by teens and adults.

Which brings me to my own TV habits. I watch a fair amount of television because I’m home a lot, and if I’m not on my computer or listening to music, I will turn on CNN or MSNBC or, in the evening, PBS or the BBC. Sometimes I watch HBO movies or series. I watch an average of an hour or two a day, sometimes less, rarely more. That seems like a lot to me.

I was going to say categorically and emphatically that I do not watch any reality shows, but I just learned recently that “Deadliest Catch,” to which I am addicted, is a reality show. So sue me. I like to watch crab fishermen battling the elements in the violent swells of the Bering Sea.