tv is good for you
April 30, 2009, 5:13 pm
Lonely Hearts Find Comfort in TV Characters
Don’t feel delusional for turning to favorite television characters on “Lost” or “Brothers and Sisters” for comfort – new research suggests that such illusory relationships can buffer people against loneliness or sadness.
Subjects in one study who felt down from remembering unhappy moments of social rejection soon perked up upon writing about their favorite TV shows and characters.
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Sometimes even enthusiastic TV viewers can’t believe how attached they are to their favorite stories, Gabriel said.“They think it’s almost illogical – you watch a show or get a book and you think, ‘Stupid, these people don’t even exist,’” Gabriel said.
i have never thought my relationship with tv illogical. the average real person is probably a lot dumber than your average tv writer, and hence tv characters are probably a lot smarter than real life people. i often find myself asking, “will hanging out w/ X person be more interesting than watching a new episode of friday night lights?” the answer is almost always “no.” sorry blog readers, i would much rather hang out with matt saracen than you.
speaking of tv mimicking real relationships, i dumped heroes a couple weeks back, and i’m finding the experience to resemble past bad relationships. the courtship started off beautiful, but when the honeymoon was over, it was disturbingly hard to let go. i just kept hoping things would improve and it would be like it was before. i broke up with heroes recently, but let’s be honest, it was really over more than a year ago. i hear heroes has gotten better without me, but i just have to move on with my own life from now on.
hold on. i need a moment.
leandro: glad a story about unhealthy relationships w/ tv characters made you think of me.