For many Americans, their favorite hobby is watching television. This may not seem like a hobby to some people, but it is. The definition of a hobby is doing some leisure or recreational activity outside of the race. Watching television is probably the most common hobby out there. With the number of hours people spend watching television each day, and it is increasing, watching television easily becomes one of the most popular activities among Americans. I wouldn’t say it is constructive, but it is popular. How else do people spend their time doing more? They work eight hours a day, and then the average person watches television for five to eight hours a day. Nobody spends that much time doing any other particular activity.
The lesson we learn from this is that not all hobbies are the same. Some hobbies can be more constructive and improve your lifestyle or quality of life more than others. There are countless things you could do that would be more constructive than watching television. Read a book, go out and do something with some friends, go do some kind of physical exercise. Find a hobby at the nearest hobby shop that is constructive, helps you in some way, and improves your life in some way. Find something that gives you a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment, something that can give you the feeling of having accomplished something.
Most of the people I have talked to, who watch a great deal of television, admit that television is boring and a waste of time. So why are they spending so much time doing it? Some people, I think, are just not aware of how much time they are actually spending. If you sit down and show them how much of their life they are spending in front of the TV, they would be surprised. Others watch television for want of something better to do. They can’t think of things to do, or they don’t want to make the effort to think of better things to do. Television has already warped your creative minds. They have become slaves to him, unable to act on their own or think of their own things to do. Others may see it out of laziness. They just want to sit down, so why not turn on the TV while they’re sitting down? Others may watch just for a break from anything. Sometimes it’s nice to relax your brain after using it at work or school all day. Watching television is very relaxing for the brain. You don’t even have to think; you can sit there and stare at the screen without understanding. That’s great! Well these are just things I’ve thought of for people who spend so much time watching TV. There are probably many other excuses, but none of them justify the time and talent wasted in such an endeavor, talents that could be developed in other areas.
One of my favorite quotes is “money is only as good as the good you can do with it.” I think we could say the same of our time. “Time is only as good as the good we can do,” so let’s make our time useful and do something good, something constructive. Plan your days and your weeks; plan good uplifting activities; plan something that helps you and others. Television is often just an alternative for people who don’t plan other, more constructive things.