Staring Into Nothing, Absolutely Nothing

Sal gave our class another experiment to do this week. This time there was a t.v. involved instead of nothing. Our assignment was to watch the t.v. with absolutely no sound. The first 15 minutes was any television show of our choice and the other 15 minutes was the news. Doing this task made me realize that t.v. isn't as exciting and interesting without the sound on and I was in less of a "daze" than with the sound. Also it was MUCH difficult to understand the program of my choice, since I chose a drama and most of it is narration. You would see one sense with people talking then it would cut to another that maybe have been a flash back or just another day in the show. Talk about being lost at the beginning of the program, already. Just starring at the television made me less interested in the program and I just started to ignore the show like it wasn't even on. That just shows how much sound has an impact on things such as the t.v. Although when i was watching the news it was different. I understood most of it and was engaged into it with the different pictures and colorful words that were being displayed on the screen. Yet, most of it was old news like the kid that got "stuck" in the hot air balloon, so I understood when the anchors were talking about that incident
Watching another person watch t.v. is also amusing and it's interesting the kinds of pattern they make for themselves and follow it without even realizing. I secretly watched one of my best friends watch television, with sound of course, and I could relate to her pattern. As the show "Gilmore Girls" started she was glued to the t.v., but as soon as it cut to commercial her interest was lost and occupied herself with something else until the show was back on. This got me thinking, how do some people stare at a t.v. all day, when it's just a box filled with electrical wire and plugged in into the wall outlet?