OK, I think I got this from one of you today, but I don't see it on my flist, so maybe it was greader grist. (Update: I blame elfs. Transhumanist smut peddler.) Anyway, Clay Shirky says television is the gin of the masses, and the cognitive surplus (good term!) it's been eating up is starting to be used for other things and is going to kick the ass of the world, finally, RSN.

This makes perfect sense to me. I watch at most one hour of TV per week: House (BTW: tonight, my place, starting 7 PM) is the hub of a roughly weekly social gathering that lasts 3-5 hours. I don't have the patience for commercials: LJ and iGoogle are much more efficient at feeding my insatiable hunger for stimulus, and they have social and educational elements TV doesn't.

And in turn, my life is vastly improved when I steal even 10% of my cognitive surplus from these more-or-less passive reading activities. Over the last 3-4 weeks, that much stolen time got me a better job. If that less-stressful job lets me ease up on the NADD a little bit and spend more time on school and exercise and hobbies, all indications are that I will have a vast improvement in health, intellectual satisfaction, and employability.

Don't kill your TV, just strangle it to the point of near-unconsciousness and have a party with your friends around its twitching remnant.