The Entertainers

I got this from someone's xanga. This is the advice her mum gave her : READ. Read books, essays, magazines, newspapers. You need to understand the meaning of life, the challenges everyone faces in their lives. TV is the worst influence, it's entertaining, but it's shallow. At one point you will need a deeper knowledge of your being to life. When I read that, I thought 'wow'. Even my mum never gave me that kind of advice. Instead, I'm the one who give myself that kind of advice. But I do think what she says really makes sense. Book is the window to knowledge. Books shapes your mind, broadens your perspective, it really influences you in what you think, your opinion and most of all, it educates you in the most entertaining way (according to me) : by reading it. It helps to build your imagination too cos by reading,you imagine what the character feels, does, etc as if you're watching a movie but it is directed by you, you just don't do the script. Reading a novel and reading a comic is different. In comic, you don't need to imagine, you just read and it makes you become a passive reader. Not like reading a book full with text, you're forced to imagine. That's why I think it really helps to build your imagination. I used to read comic, in fact I liked it a lot. I stopped reading in in HS and in college when I try to read it again, I find it very hard cos I'm not used to it anymore. I'm so used to read text and imagine the stories I read and now when it's 'all-served' in front of me I feel it hard to 'chew' not to mention to 'swallow'. Get what I mean? Imagine it hehehe Anyway, about the TV thing. I don't watch TV. I don't like it much. Reading is my favorite and as dull as it sounds to some ppl (who doesn't like to read, or thinks that books get him/her sleepy) it goes the same to me when someone say,"I prefer watching TV." Dull. Watching TV and don't read books? Double dull. When I'm at home, the only channels I watch are CNN and MTV. I can't live without the two of them. I can't watch them in Bandung, but it's fine with me cos, I can live without a TV. With or without TV, I survive. But without books? It'd be a complete dull world for me. Sure, nobody beats that TV is entertaining. But as the mum says, it's also shallow cos it doesn't help you to develop your imagination. TV is good as long as it educates people. The same goes for book, it's good as it educates people. And these two, if they're used for wrong purposes, the consequences would be harmful. They, especially TV, influence people fast. TV's effect spreads quickly, unlike book, that takes time to spread the effect, but the effect lasts longer. So both of them, could be a dangerous tool to provoke bad things. That's why we have to be wise in choosing TV shows and books. However, above all, books still rank as the only source to knowledge. So don't stop reading, cos it enriches your life. For sure it is.