STOP WATCHING NETFLIX.

• Author: Griffin, Elle

TV is making us depressed. Art is the cure.

I'm not really into watching television shows. For me, it's something I do only when I'm home alone and need some background noise in the house. Or when I'm not feeling well. Even then, I pretty much stick to reruns of 90sera sitcoms such as Friends and Will & Grace.

As a result, I frequently find myself "behind the times." Left out of conversations with friends and colleagues that center around the shows everyone is watching, the seasons they loved, the ones they hated, the unexpected episodes, and the new series everyone should be watching, if they aren't already. I let these conversations happen in the background, as I wait for the topic to turn, but I always find myself wondering the same thing: "where does everyone find the time to watch all of these television shows?"

According to TechCrunch, United States adults consume close to six hours of video content each day. That includes content viewed via traditional cable services, streaming services, online video content, and DVD players. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Americans spend more time watching television than they do on any other activity, apart from work. That means, on the pie chart of how our time is spent, the largest slice goes to work, and the second largest slice goes to TV, with the rest of our lives relegated to the small sliver of our time labeled "other."

Before I get off track, allow me to be clear on one point: I am not anti-television. I enjoy the occasional binge-day as much as anyone else. This article is not going to end with a diatribe about the perils of TV. Rather, I believe excessive television watching has become a symbol of the declining culture that accompanies it. And that, to me, is the real tragedy. I don't want my life to be a big pie chart of work and TV. Instead, I want my life to be colorful, with big slices of experience, something that begins and ends with culture.

CORRODED CULTURE

Culture. I view culture as the wealthy sophisticate who reigned supreme in eighteenth-century salons. With a pocket watch in one hand and a staff in the other. This person was knowledgeable of the arts: the opera, the ballet, the symphony, and he expressed his opinions with well-rehearsed eloquence and aplomb.

Ample experience of art, travel, knowledge, and conversation form a character both witty and intelligent. The kind of enlightened personality once heralded "The Renaissance Man." In modern times, I can't...