Assignment 5 - Eli Flomenhoft

     TV is a lavish waste time. Despite this a great number of Americans, including myself, still watch TV, or rather streaming apps. Either way, with or without the advertisements, TV is rampant disease in our society. And the cause of this disease, at least for me, is due to boredom and procrastination. Whenever I am bored and have seemingly nothing to do, I watch TV. I mainly watch out of boredom,  and rather than spend the time and thought processes to read a book I'd rather let my mind wander and watch a show. Procrastination is another reason and effect of watching TV. By watching TV or Netflix or Youtube or Hulu, I am keeping my mind off of the work that I have to do. Work, that if I was not watching TV, would stress me out. So watching TV somewhat relieves the stress because the work is put on a back burner. This in turn causes more procrastination. I generally find that after watching one or two episodes of a show I become bored with it. This is because I know what I'm doing is pointless and a waste of time, and the idea that I could be doing something more useful with my time becomes stressful in and of itself, which causes me to quit watching TV and go and work on what I am supposed to work on.
     While watching TV may cause more stress in the long run, one show I thoroughly enjoy is the Netflix Original Peaky Blinders. Peaky Blinders contains an almost excessive amount of violence. The show is set in the time between WWI and WWII and follows a gang with intense familial ties. As the seasons progress the gang expands in influence and intrigue. All  the while the fighting gets bloodier. Intrigue combined with bloodshed is probably what draws me to this show. Yet despite this being one of my favorite shows I still find myself becoming bored with it after a few episodes. Forcing me to leave the show where its at, sometimes in the middle of an episode, and pick it back up later.
     The fact that I, and many others, cannot focus on one thing for a long period of time, even something as mindless as TV, is representative of the way our society is going. It is also a reason that the Emmys are more prominent than the Nobel Prizes. The glitz and glamour of the Emmys grab the attention of a society that hardly focuses on anything. In contrast the Nobel Prizes is a serious affair with long speeches on topics that require much thought and deliberation to understand. The attention that is required of people to understand and enjoy the Nobel Prizes is what drives people away and the accessibility, glamour, and low level of intellect needed is what draws people to the Emmys.
     People being drawn towards the Emmys rather than the Nobel Prizes is representative of the values our society holds. Our society places the rich and famous and the wealthy and successful on a pedestal. Glorifying them above all else. That is why the Emmys grab the worlds attention, because it is what is important to us. Less and less are people focusing on education. And this is seen in fewer people focusing on world problems such as starvation, disease, and death. The Emmys and their glamour allow us to procrastinate the issues that are at hand. Just like I watch TV to procrastinate on my work, our society watches the lives of celebrities to procrastinate the serious problems at hand. In the end, our societies praise of the Emmys shows a move towards focusing on the trivial matters to procrastinate the important ones.