TV cop-out

What happened on “Grey’s Anatomy” the other night? I missed it. What dramatically shallow life crises did those witty writers devise for their selfish creations? What ridiculously contrived, unexpected plot twist did the writers pull out of their collective ear on “Lost” this week to keep you coming back? What did perky, self-centered, adorably awkward, calculatedly messy character A, B or C do on “Scrubs” this time that was just so funny, painful or like life that you simply had to analyze it with all your friends?\nTo my peers and colleagues: You are in college, whether as a student or an instructor, you are here. You can probably pontificate for hours over the finer theoretical points of your area of expertise. I am immersed in academia, yet everywhere I go, I hear otherwise bright, intelligent people discussing in great detail the “lives” of television characters as if they actually exist and have some bearing on real life, and I am perplexed. Perplexed, because seemingly interesting, educated people are obsessing about people who do not indeed exist at the expense of true intimacy.\nI could play the tired card of self-righteousness about now and scold about how many babies are dying in any number of Third World countries during the hour you’re glued to “House M.D.” or “Sex and the City” reruns, but that’s not fair. Storytelling has cultural significance and the enjoyment of being entertained by a well-crafted story doesn’t place the blood of the less fortunate directly on your hands. The concern I have lies instead with the fascination that lingers on into the next day, spilling into conversations, the plots finding their ways into away messages and guiding group affiliations on Facebook. Have academics really become so vapid that the most compelling topic of conversation, particularly in the Indiana Memorial Union around lunchtime, is what their good friend Elliot did on “Scrubs” the night before, instead of anything remotely related to their own lives?\nTo me, it seems we are becoming progressively more adept at filling personal voids with the emotions portrayed on the small screen, artfully composed by writers who are little more than drug pushers, selling their addictive products, making us feel more adequate. We are drawn into the counterfeit drama between composites of people we want to be, with the lives we want to have. The “McDreamies” of the small screen take risks and make mistakes for us, so we don’t have to. As Meredith shows us all her secrets, we get a false sense of the intimacy lacking in our increasingly fractured society.\nIt may do us all well to turn off the television and take a look at our own lives. Since we only get one chance at life, now is the time to amass our own dramas, mistakes and experiences. Instead of living vicariously through television characters, it’s time to really live. I want the story of my life to rival any prime-time drama, what about you? Turn off your TV and live a story worth telling