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Originally Posted by pigglet
In addtion to people feeling defensive when you say you don't watch tv, i think its also that you've just annihilated the basis for the conversations that people above are talking about. i think we're conditioned to sort of be mock friendly to each other, and i'm not saying that's bad or good.
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Pigglet, thanks also for this thought... I think others have been saying more or less the same thing, but yours in particular got through to me.
I guess you made me realize that a big part of my frustration is that I hate small talk. I cannot STAND small talk, actually. As I mentioned in the OP, it's usually "water-cooler" type talk when this TV topic comes up, and I am probably already uncomfortable with the tone of the conversation (surface only). Like you, I don't want someone talking to me while peeing (dunno if women have the equivalent
) or drinking coffee... so when someone asks about TV, I really don't know what to say, since I often prefer silence in those situations. In my usual blunt style, I just try to extricate myself from it by saying that I don't watch TV... and people get thrown off their social programs.
Of course, I'd rather ask them how they're doing emotionally with their last break-up, or if they are feeling demeaned by the boss' latest decision, or how they are doing with the loss of a close relative... things that people just don't want to talk about on coffee breaks, I guess. (That's *my* social programming, for good or bad.) So it's TV shows that come up instead.
I suppose if I brought up the actual topics that I wanted to discuss (the way they bring up TV shows), damn, they might be reacting with the same irritation that I have about them!
In the interest of compromise, however... when I lived with ktspktsp for 5 months and he occasionally watched TV, I did enjoy Chappelle's Show and South Park. And the Daily Show is great. So those few shows in combination gave me some fuel for small talk, for a short time... too bad I haven't watched them in a year! Oh, and Family Guy is pretty cool (again, all through ktspktsp).