The Bigger Picture:TV is such a big part of most of our lifestyles. And yet, rarely do we really have the chance to notice what it offers us, our relationship to it and the impact it has on our lives.
There are certainly the positive aspects of television. It can bring to us images and stories we would never have been able to see ourselves. When put together with skill, its production can be truly inspiring.
If you are someone who learns better through visuals, it can be an invaluable educational medium. Most of all, it is an art form and, when done well, is beautiful and deeply touching.
The main confusion with television is the assumption that it shows us reality. Making TV is a visual art. Makers of TV are often "playing" as part of the process to create their art. Camera angles, lighting, sound, music, wardrobe, make-up, subject, narrative . . .
even broadcast times are all carefully planned and knitted together to create the piece.
Even in the hands of the most conscientious documentary director, important aspects of a story will fall to the cutting room floor because it didn't quite fit with the timing, pace, lighting, sound or narrative.
Programme-makers are very good at their jobs. We enjoy it. Television is entertaining and nice to watch. Unless we have been privy to the production process, the images seem to go straight through to the back of our minds, and we think it's real. It must be. It looks so real.
Television is truly invasive. And yet, we rarely object. The "reality" - normal and defining - comes intimately into our homes. We watch it in both our waking hours and the private, forbidden ones. With each transmission, some other world - other people, their communities, lives and relationships - are invited straight into our homes and minds.
Even though watching TV is an isolating activity (you can't really talk or connect to others if you really mean to follow what's happening) there's something social about it. Most of what we see are social situations: documentaries are about people in their lives, dramas are about characters, motivation and relationships.
The key to a good story is the conflict, struggle and humanity we can relate to ourselves. No wonder it makes such a difference when we see people on TV we can identify with, and such a hole when our experience is obviously absent.
And, we truly get to know the characters. We love them. They are funny relationships: a sort of "intimacy" without responsibility; a "closeness" without the requirement of effort. The inner thoughts and feelings of these characters are shown to us repeatedly and regularly, regardless of the fact that we never had to "ask them about their day".
And then there is what happens to us while we are watching TV, that we are too otherwise absorbed to notice: television is immobilising. It is something that forces us to paralyse our limbs while our minds are under the illusion that we are active . . . somewhere.
This medium has also introduced us to a world of "flicking". Television images change so fast, and the revolution of the remote control has made it possible for us to bring to life every impatient impulse and agitation we can imagine, as we absent-mindedly flick from one channel to the next.
Somehow this has disrupted our attention span and transformed our rhythm to something that pulses much quicker than our own heartbeat.
So many of us today find it hard to relax, fill space, slow down, sit still. Ironically, we look to rest by turning on the TV.
TV is addictive. It is true, much of it plays to our distresses as the agenda to sell us something and make a profit strives to keep us watching - still and captive - for longer and longer. Programmes are designed to hook us in and make us come back.
If we miss one, it triggers in us a core feeling of genuinely having lost something. With multiple sets in most every household, and the potential for 999 channels per unit running 24 hours a day, TV offers a thrilling opportunity for corporations to direct their advertising through. Indeed, TV is an expensive art form. We don't often notice the price that is paid to make it.
There can be joy, inspiration, enlightenment and education in watching television. It is a powerful medium that can touch us deeply in ourselves. We needn't be passive with it, however.
At the end of the day, for our own health and peace of mind, we get to decide what goes into our minds and, most importantly, what takes seed (remembering that the more you repeat something, the more strongly it takes hold). We are the gate-keepers. In this job, let the keys be things that nurture our self-esteem, increase our confidence and deepen our ability to connect with each other - genuinely, and in the real world after we've turned that box off.
Shalini Sinha works as a life coach for clients in Ireland and internationally, and practises the Bowen technique in Dublin and Wexford.