Turn off your TV while you still can
A warning from 20 minutes into the future
Remember the 80s?
If you’re old enough, you undoubtedly do, and if you do, I’m sure you remember this guy:
For those of you youngsters who may be wondering just who this odd character is, let me introduce Max Headroom, a computer-generated character who dominated the airwaves in the mid-to-late 80s, not only hawking Coke back in the Cola Wars days, but also at one point starring in his own talk show.
Spoiler #1: he wasn’t actually computer generated, because, well, it was the 80s. That’s actually actor Matt Frewer in a whole pile of make-up and a plastic suit, done up to look like he’s a glitchy computer character from “20 minutes into the future.”
Spoiler #2: Max Headroom didn’t get his start in the Coke ads or the talk show. He was the star of his very own dystopian TV movie, which was a production of the UK’s Channel 4, and then—a few years later—a (slightly reworked) short-lived US TV series, both of which are, ironically, the things most people don’t remember about him. And that’s sad, because Max the character/show was a thing of prescient beauty.
So prescient, in fact, that a friend and I had to stop watching her DVDs seven or eight years ago because some of it was starting to seem too real.
A brief recap, for anyone who missed it, which you probably did: Max is the electronic alter ego of Edison Carter, star reporter for Network 23. Since Max lives in the computer system, he’s a handy (and rather mischievous) ally for all things technical, while Edison is out reporting on the aforementioned dystopian corruption in a land where corporations—particularly TV networks—reign supreme, no one reads, and decadence rules.
You know… kind of like the 80s.
I wish I were joking about the reading, but since I’m not, here’s one of my favorite short moments from the show:
It’s also a whole lot like today.
There’s an episode where the character depicted above, Blank Reg (played wonderfully by the late W. Morgan Sheppard) is on trial. Where does the trial take place? On a courtroom game show, of course, complete with a dancing judge and a lot of glitter.
You’re probably thinking, “Oh, come on, we’re not there yet.” That’s true. But we’ve had “reality” TV for about 25 years now—maybe more depending on what you consider the beginning—and have even managed to elect one of its biggest stars president. Twice.
Are we really that far off?
Okay, so this weird show from the 80s seemed to accurately predict a fair bit of what we’re living in now. What about it?
There’s a lot I could say about this, from so many different directions, many of which are fascinating, but beyond my area of expertise. But here’s one that popped up in a recent conversation, and got me thinking:
In the world of Max Headroom, it’s illegal to turn off your television.
Illegal.
Now, again, your reaction to this idea may be, “Okay, but what’s your point? I can turn off my TV. It’s that red button on my remote. I do it every night.”
I don’t doubt that you do. But what happens before then?
Just how much time do we, do you, spend staring at your TV? When you’re streaming something on your service of choice, which is how most of us watch these days, what happens when your show or movie ends?
Ah, yes—the next episode starts, or if you’re watching a movie, the next recommendation pops up. If you’re browsing and you’re curious about something and linger on the description too long, it starts playing for you automatically.
Most of us think of this as a convenience, but is it?
We can turn off the TV, but it doesn’t want us to. It wants us to keep watching, and it encourages us by making it super convenient for us. We don’t have to touch anything. We can just sit passively by as the TV/service starts the next thing for us.
If someone suddenly passed a law making it illegal to turn off your TV, people would be up in arms. But is what we have right now really, functionally, that different from not being able to turn it off?
And it’s not just the TV, of course. Max didn’t predict the smartphone, but let’s be real here—most of us spend at least as much time staring at one of those as we do the TV, and many of those apps are also designed to keep us glued to the screen for as long as possible.
We still have choice, yes. Absolutely. But we are encouraged not to use it. It’s made so very convenient for us to let the service, the app, the device make the choice for us. (And I’ll note that, while my Roku remote can turn my TV on, it cannot turn it off.)
When we hand over our choice that way, we hand over our time and our agency. We allow our habits to be made for us, often without our conscious knowledge or consent.
The next thing we know, we’ve developed a screen or TV addiction that’s difficult to break.
Then we wonder why we don’t have enough time to get to the things we really want to do, like the creativity that lights us up. We also wonder why we don’t have the energy to do them. We’re exhausted, but we haven’t even done anything. What’s up with that?
What’s difficult to see, unless we deliberately make an effort to look for it, is that those habits steal our time in sneaky ways, especially when they’re formed around activities we don’t even really register as activities. We generally think of checking our phones, in particular, as quick things, but they often aren’t, and they siphon away gobs of time before we even register it. These habits build an unconscious structure in our lives that works against us rather than for us.
Those unconscious structures de-energize us on two fronts: they steal our attention, and they take away time we could be using to be creative, which is a huge source of energy—but only when we actually do it. Those screens, on the other hand, drain it right out of us.
It’s not illegal, here at the end of 2024, to turn off your TV, or put down your phone. You still have the power to make that choice, to build a better habit—one that leads to more energy as well as greater happiness and satisfaction.
What unconscious structures have you created in your life? How might you want to look at changing them as we head into 2025?
Before we go, I just wanted to let you know about two things you might be interested in:
If you’d like to break out of your usual patterns and ditch the perfectionism in 2025, Make Bad Art returns on January 20!
Upcoming podcast guest, former pastor, and writer
is hosting a six-week Spiritual Support for Weary Souls group that starts on January 12. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by recent events and could use some support in a small group setting, check it out! Wendi is awesome, and I’ve signed up, so it’d be great to see you there, too!
I Don't have a TV. Don't subscribe to any streaming services. I carry around a notepad and draw if I'm in a waiting room or whatever.
We've been warned by Max, and now re-warned by you, beautifully, in this post. I love your long-form thinking/writing, Nancy.