Barbara Ehenreich

Barbara Ehenreich has what appears to be, quite a strong opinion on television that goes back to the 1980's. The 1980's is when television was really brought out, and people began to watch. The shows on T.V. were written to entertain watchers, and so they did. The characters on the shows led similar lives to those watching, until, as Ehenreich points out, it was realized that that wasn't so. Television shows didn't have clips of people watching T.V. If in the televised world there are people who don't watch T.V. as we do, what's the point of watching? "So why do we keep on watching?" is Ehenreich's main focus. Well, why wouldn't we watch television just because it shows that watching television is boring? It isn't showing that watching television is boring, but that watching people stare a screen providing entertainment to others, isn't all that enjoyable. Yet, there are cases where it can be. In modern times, not the 1980's, there are, in fact, television shows, that receive immense praise; that follow, specifically, the lives of people who do watch a lot of television. Now, what is depicted there?

For a majority of the people, watching television is not boring. Yes, it might not be the most stimulating activity, but does it absolutely have to be? No, it doesn't, but it provides an escape to those in need, and a pleasing pastime for others. To this day, hundreds of shows are being produced, and no two shows are entirely identical. There is quite a large variety to choose from, based on what a certain person would find appealing and enjoy. Writers for shows are constantly brainstorming and incorporating new concepts for the purpose of administering a continuously improving source of entertainment.

However, there is one aspect to T.V. watching, as Ehenreich points out, that can be, to some, quite uneventful; the actual viewing of a show. Now there are those who watch an episode a day, and then others who view an entire season a day. In most casing of watching the tube, you sit and stare and really without much else going on. These people, are what Ehenreich so delicately dubs, "modern people; i.e. couch potatoes". She claims that these people only exist for the sole purpose of using a talking, light-up box for entertainment. They would never do anything that they watch so dutifully, simply due to the "fact" that they're lazy. Yet, television is watched by people with more "successful" lives that use it as a means of relaxation. For example, a doctor may watch a drama revolving around another, fictional, hospital, to get some comic relief on such a weighted duty. Teachers who spend countless hours in an attempt to educate the masses, need breaks; and watch television. There are shows on teachers and professors as well as shows following cops and even students. All of these different people do watch T.V. shows, possibly and especially those those that relate to them. It is simply ignorant to say that people who spend hours on watching television "do nothing that is ever shown on television (because it is either dangerous or would involve getting up from the couch)". What would Ehenreich then call these people, with jobs that require "getting up from the couch", that watch T.V. shows based on the same jobs? From her statements, these people are obviously just simply unheard of.