April 22-28 2001 has been officially designated
tv turnoff week by
suspiciously hip
counterculture magazine and
community Adbusters. The idea is that during a single
week will consciously
avoid watching tv, and those who think this is not enough will arrange
street theatre, tv smash-ins and other classical
culture jamming activities.
"The next time you're
prepping to sit down for a few hours of sit-coms, ask a
friend or
family member to set an
alarm for a
random amount of
time greater than half an
hour – say, one hour 26 minutes. Then settle in and
enjoy your
TV. Eventually, the
alarm will catch you off guard. When it does,
immediately ask yourself this question: In the
instant before the alarm went off, did I feel really and truly
alive?
Watching
TV is a
passive, brain-emptying
experience – not even
network executives deny it. But that's not the point of the
alarm clock experiment. The point is to think for a moment about what it means to spend
hours every day somewhere in between
living and dead. Watching TV, on the
Internet, gaming on the
PlayStation. It's a chance to wonder what it means to buy into the don't-worry-be-happy cool of a virtual life. That
random alarm? Also known as a 'wake-up call.'" - from www.adbusters.org