Lucy Macfarlan The X-Files

I'll start this off by saying that I very rarely, if ever, watch real TV. Netflix on the other hand, I use very often. I  could  literally(I mean that) spend the rest of this blog post raving about the X-Files (Why don't you love me David Duchovny). But instead I  think it would be much more interesting to point out the fairly obvious phenomenon of television addiction and why it is so pervasive. Addiction is maybe a bit of a strong word but really many of us, myself included, spend far too much time watching our favorite TV shows and getting completely obsessed with the lives of the characters. I think one if the many reasons behind this is that it provides an escape from our everyday, banal lives. Instead of thinking about your English homework you can think about (okay watch someone else think about)  an outlandish government conspiracy to cover up contact with aliens. At this point in time it's a monumental trend in our culture to let other people think and create things for us to listen to and then unquestioningly accept (Fox News, etc.). This is why television is more popular than reading books among many people, it's much easier to just let a few people on a bright screen tell you what's happening and what it all  means. Similarly, it's much easier to just half pay attention to crappy tv than it is to actually put in the focus that reading a book, writing something, or other forms of entertainment. I love a good book but there are few things that I enjoy as much as coming home after a long day to an hour of David Duchovny talking about aliens.