After centuries of living, fifty years ago, man introduced a little thing called a television. It entertained us free. We could watch Saturday Night at the Movies at home. The television programmers figured out very quickly, what we liked and what we didn’t like.

They learned early, if we didn’t get what we liked, we switched to another station and their programs were cancelled. With fewer viewers, their commercial revenues went down. It hasn’t changed.

Television uses the extremes of life to keep us watching. They’re giving us what we want in an attempt to keep the ratings up. We can’t very well blame the media. The news programs show us the worst life has to offer. The sensationalism of the robberies, killings, kidnapping and rapes is the news.

We want it, so they give it to us. On the other side, they entertain us with our concept of the good life. They show us fashion clothing, sports cars and beautiful homes. They give us a view of a perfect life in every way. They’re showing us a fantasy.

They give us an escape from the reality of our everyday lives. Then they sprinkle in some more of the worst life has to offer with world, national and local news programming. They tell us we’ll look beautiful if we use this product or service.

Most youngsters have no idea television was black and white, with only a few hours of programming each day in the late fifties. Most young people think television programming is somehow real. It’s not. It’s an escape from the real world. It’s entertainment. The advertisers pay the stations to sprinkle ideas about how great their products are. This pays for the “entertaining” programming.

We find ourselves searching for those products and services in an attempt to make our life easier. Do we blame the television stations for this? No.

They’re giving us a form of entertainment and paying for the production of the entertainment through advertising dollars. It’s our choice to decide whether to use the products and services advertised. We decide which ones we can afford in our lives.

Always keep in mind. television is entertainment. It’s not real. It portrays a life not easily achieved by the everyday household in America today. It is achievable, but not by the everyday household. It’s a fantasy lifestyle.

A writer made it up, in a little cubicle somewhere. She or he wrote it in an effort to entertain you. The television show producer thought it would entertain you, when she read it, so they made the show. Yet so many people today think it is real life. It is not real.

A young couple, starting out, can’t have what it took their parents twenty-five years to acquire. It doesn’t work that way. However, it appears to work that way on television.

This young couple can’t live in a 2,000 square foot house, with the $30,000 kitchen and think the numbers will work. In the fantasy world of television, it appears to work. If their parents are living in that size home, in most cases, it took them twenty-five years to be able to afford it. That, my friend, is reality.

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