Ever since I could remember, I have sat in front of a television. The bright colors from the box have always been interesting to me. The sounds were equally mesmerizing. Man, or woman, even robotic in nature. I enjoyed every second of it. My family thought I was obsessed, and let's be real. I was, and still am.
Television has everything. History, science, math, all that I wasn't so interested in when I was younger now becoming what I love to watch. When I was younger, I watched cartoons, and live action shows, and while I still do, I don't take my time watching much anymore. But after school, when I was twelve, I started taking notes of everything I saw, and soon, the amount of money spent on notebooks, pencils, and erasers was equal to the monthly cost of the cable.
A lot of money was spent on my tv watching, and before I knew it, I dropped out of highschool, working a part-time job I didn't even do right. I had to get glasses, and I was barely able to pay for the expenses at my parent's house. But I wanted more. I saved any money I could get, buying more tvs, to watch more shows at once, since I was no longer stimulated with just one instance. Streaming services got popular, so I bought those and paid for them. I did so using money for my birthday.
By the time I was an adult, I was kicked out of my house, but my friend decided to let me live with him, so long as I paid for every expense I take part in, as in, electricity and internet, even cable, but I don't use that much anymore. Most of my time spent alive was in front of the bright LEDs of modern television. My eyes hurt so often, I had to get prescription eye drops. Those help a lot with the pain, and crust in my eyes. I've even found new forms of entertainment and learning, Youtube, especially, but game shows, man, as I got into my 20s, those have been a large source. I've still been taking notes of everything, I am now 50 notebooks strong, of course, of varying page length.
When I was out and about, I met a girl. And by met, it wasn't the usual cheesy romantic meeting, it was a casual conversation about a show I saw recently. It was at the store when I was getting a notebook. She made a comment about my under-weight look. I never thought about that, I was quite boney… And my eyes were hurting a bit in the natural light, so I was squinting a lot.
I realised immediately that my life… Although I thought it was full of entertainment, it was never… Real. I never found genuine excitement about my life, nor did I feel I was even a living person, more like a… Character in a show. But that was wrong, I am not a character in a show. I am nothing like that, a character in a show, at least has some worth, but… Really… Is that true? After getting home, I scavenged through my notebooks, looking for something, anything in it that I could find that would confirm what I thought.
I scoured through my 2012 notebooks, and found what I was looking for… "The characters in the back have equal meaning to the ones in the foreground, some are seen in later episodes, but even if we don't see their full backstory, they have thoughts, feelings, and ideals, memories that are never expanded upon. The average viewer will never understand them… But how easy is it to even study a character when you know nothing about them?"
I missed something about it… The main character's view on their life is so… slim. We follow a close minded person every SINGLE TIME. THEY NEVER GET SELF AWARE ABOUT WHO THEY ARE, HOW OTHER PEOPLE EXIST BUT THEM AND THEIR FRIENDS, BUT EVERYONE IS IMPORTANT TO THEMSELVES, BUT WE NEVER SEE THIS, WHY IS IT NEVER COVERED IN ANY OTHER MEDIA?
I take in a deep breath…
Something about the way they are, main characters just… never care about the world they are in, even the heroes of a story. Are they really that good?
I need to take my mind off of this, but I've seen everything I would care about. I learned about every history, science, most of math I cared to even take a moment to understand. And I realized I didn't enjoy anything. Real life, my REAL life was stolen from me. By… Television, visual, and auditory entertainment. I've analyzed every show I had the time to watch, and breaking those down, made it easy to analyze every show, and that made things exciting, but useless, what's the point?
All these… Notebooks, was there… A reason for any of it? I have a job, and I use that money for useless entertainment that's made my life WORSE.
In a fit of rage, I grab the notebook marked "4/23/12" and start ripping out pages. All the memories I have of every letter I've written down started popping up as I realized how much mental storage I wasted on the fruitless entertainment of television-
BEEP…
What..?
BEEP…
I turn to the tv, which had been off, at least… I thought, and…
BEEEEP…
Greetings citizen of planet earth! Due to your extensive knowledge on your planet, and it's various thoughts, and forms of entertainment, you have been selected to join the intergalactic game show!!
Please, remain still, as we have come to collect you!
Inter.. Galactic gameshow..? What the fuck is that- Wait, collect me???
Moments afterwards, I felt a tug on my body as I was suddenly pulled through the ceiling of my friend's apartment, then through another one, and another, and one more..
A giant ship, barely even visible over the night sky had been pulling me up. My body would be in pain if the adrenaline hadn't calmed my nerves down, but… I was being abducted, wasn't I? Aliens exist! They exist?!? HOW MANY PEOPLE WERE RIGHT ABOUT THIS? I DIDN'T KNOW THEY WERE REAL, I THOUGHT IT WAS ALL FAKE, BUT THEY ARE?
Before I could get another thought in, my world was shrouded in black, pure silence surrounded me, before I passed out.