The leaves are just starting to fall, making State College a beautiful red-and-orange sprinkled wonderland. The weather has not reached freezing levels yet, allowing you to wear your favorite hoodie to class. In a picturesque world, you are outside laughing and savoring the bliss while it lasts.
Except you probably haven’t left your living room when you’re not at work or at the library.
Fall TV is back, and it is all encompassing. It devours your soul entirely and gives you that escape you crave after that terrible exam or that blockage you need from your surrounding when your roommate is being terrible.
Despite all of the amazing things the return of Fall TV brings, its angels have demons, giving you a whole new wave of unwanted stress of your life. If you haven’t thought about it before, Valley invites you to take a closer look into your other new schedule, and how it is equally saving and also ruining your life.
A Double Life
As a Penn State student, you already wear a million hats daily. Now that fall TV back, you have a new obligation, but it’s not like your other ones. You are a fan of ‘x’ TV show, and if you miss said TV show, your life painfully spirals out of control. You feel like a part of your chest has become hollow, as you sit and wonder what could have been. Daily things like meetings or work or even class can get in the way of fulfilling this obligation, leaving many moral questions in the air: Do I call out of work? Is this meeting really necessary? This type of thinking blurs reality and causes your double life to even further surface. You are a TV addict, and there is no shame, but at what price? DVR (if you have it) could be your best friend here. And yes, sometimes a show is more important than work. Sometimes.
The Pain of the Internet
We are living in a social media generation. If you have a free second, you are probably on your phone. This is great for entertainment, but bad if you want to keep your TV show life clean and free of early surprises. Spoilers plague every social networking website, and lurk on every corner. Sometimes, on the day of your favorite show, you may have to stay off the internet entirely until it airs. Or if you miss said episode of the show, you absolutely can not check Twitter because someone somewhere you follow has been live-tweeting. TV and Twitter/Facebook align ever so perfectly, but if you’re not prepared, it can spoil everything.
What is Technology?
Seriously, who invented a television to have that many buttons and different settings? Why doesn’t the stupid thing just turn on? When you’ve sprinted home from your meeting just to get home in time for your show, and you can’t find the remote over the mess that is your life, or your roommate changed a setting, this will make you want to absolutely rip your hair out. You might even miss the first 15 minutes of the show because you’re technologically challenged, and this is OK. Try to get all essential tools (the remote, the appropriate channel/setting) in the right state before you leave for the day, and you’ll be saved.
Photo by Amanda Hunt
