Yesterday my shirt said, "I love watching TV marathons." Very few of you actually saw this one, because I was in fact laying on my couch all day switching back and forth between marathons of The Sopranos and Flavor of Love. I do admit, after four or five (or more...) hours Tony and Flav have some striking similarities, but that's another discussion.I've started a small debate with myself about whether TV or the Internet is a bigger guilty pleasure. There's been a lot of responses about each of them, and I think it is because both TV and the Internet have a certain privacy as an outlet for guilty pleasures. Unlike a public movie theater, concert or the grocery store, no one knows what I watch on TV or websites I go search. Since they invented wireless, you can often find me partaking in both simultaneously.
In one of my searches I found this article about music guilty pleasures. It reminded me that the Internet wasn't always there, and the author says, "Of course, the advent of podcasting, iTunes and general internet free love has meant that our access to our most unspeakable desires is now readier than ever. Pre-Napster (and surely time will one day be marked as such), a trip to the record store to buy Chicago or Lionel Richie would possibly incur the disparaging, judgmental sneers of the cooler-than-thou clerk. Now, we can download "All Night Long" in the privacy of our own home. No muss, no fuss, no brown paper bag. Let the sappy times roll."
What would I do if I had to buy the Pussycat Dolls CD in a store--with people around?! Would I drive to one 30 minutes away? I couldn't find the image, but a few weeks ago there was a Postsecret sent in that read, "Whenever I buy something embarrassing I get a birthday card too." Very clever, and I guess if everyone did that I'd have some more job security.
In the end of my small debate, I fall on the side of the Internet. It is a black hole for time that I wish I could pull myself away from, but I love it too much. Actually, I don't know if I'd trade the hours spent on Facebook, MySpace and YouTube for anything. Well...maybe another Flav marathon.
