False Consciousness to Eye-opening Reality

When I left for college, I thought leaving my TV at home was the best idea I ever had. Finally I could eliminate my exposure to the mind-numbing entertainment that let me to procrastinate every project assigned my senior year and then continued to rot my brain all summer. After making it through my first two weeks of college believing I had successfully escaped the influence television held over me, I had the stark realization that I was still very much captivated by network programming. From eating my meals in the student center, to hanging out with my friends next-door, and especially working out in the gym, I am constantly being exposed to some sort of TV programming. This last example I’ve found is most prevalent. Every time I find my self at the Ray, I notice I make a B line for the elliptical machines with the mounted televisions. I always set a certain amount of time to spend on a particular machine before moving on in my workout and numerous times I’ve found myself going over this set time because I was too transfixed on watching the Rachel Zoe Project or Miami Ink. My false consciousness that I was “beating the system” and distancing myself from televised media was exactly that: false consciousness. Regaining actual consciousness, I realize that I am as much of a culprit to watching bad reality TV and mindless sitcoms as my neighbors on the elliptical.