An ordinary evening can look deceptively simple: dinner dishes stacked neatly next to the sink, socks kicked off near the couch, the soft blue glow of the television filling the room, while strangers compete to become the next great singer, inventor, athlete, or overnight sensation. It is easy to criticize these moments as wasted time. Initial clinical studies on television watching and mental health often warned about excessive screen time being linked to anxiety, loneliness, reduced attention span, and depressive symptoms when viewing becomes passive or isolating. The story is more complicated than that. In more recent studies, psychologists have also found that shared entertainment, inspiration-based programming, and emotionally engaging stories can create feelings of belonging, optimism, and motivation. Maybe the question is not whether television is good or bad, but what part of the human spirit it awakens while we watch.
For me, I criticized my tween daughter watching others live their lives on YouTube while she was doing nothing with her own leisure time. I didn't get it. I also had 5 jobs and was in school at the time, always striving to learn something new and then get certified in that subject. The internet was at its beginning of content creators, and then turning themselves into inventors with brands of their own products with passions of their very own. She saw watching the YouTube videos as a learning tool, for makeup, exercise routines, testing new products so she (I), would not have to spend the money or time on them. Nowadays, with only 3 jobs, I actually have time to relax after work when I choose to, and binge watch reality shows. I also apologized to my daughter for judging her negatively during her YouTube binge watching years.
Reality competition shows, especially music, athletic, and invention programs, reveal something deeply hopeful about humanity. Watching an amateur singer step onto a stage trembling with fear only to discover a voice powerful enough to silence an entire audience reminds us that greatness often hides in ordinary people. The same is true for invention shows where creative minds solve practical problems with startling ingenuity. These programs may seem disposable on the surface, but they quietly showcase resilience, imagination, collaboration, and courage. Neuroscience studies suggest that emotionally meaningful storytelling activates mirror neurons and empathy networks in the brain, allowing viewers to emotionally experience the triumphs and struggles of others. In this way, television can become less about escape and more about connection to possibility itself.
There are evenings when I wonder if hours spent watching television could have been better spent reading, writing, or creating something tangible. Then, a young inventor presents an idea to clean polluted oceans, or a singer transforms heartbreak into art, and I feel something rare in modern life: hope. Not naïve hope, but evidence-based hope rooted in human creativity. We live in an age saturated with headlines about conflict, division, and technological fear, yet these small televised moments remind us that millions of people still wake up wanting to invent, compose, build, heal, create, and dream. The human brain remains astonishingly adaptive and imaginative. Even in entertainment, our species continues reaching for beauty and innovation.
Computers can process information faster than humans, but speed is not wisdom, intuition, or emotional meaning. Artificial intelligence can generate patterns, predict preferences, and imitate language, yet the human brain carries something far more mysterious: consciousness shaped by memory, suffering, joy, love, and imagination. A machine can analyze a melody, but it cannot feel what inspired the songwriter standing under the stage lights with tears in his or her eyes. Perhaps that is why these ordinary television evenings matter more than I usually admit. Beneath the commercial breaks and dramatic music lies a quiet reminder that humans are far smarter, kinder, and more creative than we often give ourselves credit for. Watching people sing, invent, move, and dare to never give up may not be a waste of time at all. It may be one of the ways we remember who we are becoming.
These tv shows are a reminder of our brilliance, our passions, commitments, desires, determinations, and dedications to the people and activities which we love. Remember, activities are medicine for the soul!
In Gratitude,
KJ Landis
@superiorself on Instagram and X
@SuperiorSelf channel on YouTube
@superiorselfwithkjlandis on TikTok
[email protected]
Books available everywhere!
For me, I criticized my tween daughter watching others live their lives on YouTube while she was doing nothing with her own leisure time. I didn't get it. I also had 5 jobs and was in school at the time, always striving to learn something new and then get certified in that subject. The internet was at its beginning of content creators, and then turning themselves into inventors with brands of their own products with passions of their very own. She saw watching the YouTube videos as a learning tool, for makeup, exercise routines, testing new products so she (I), would not have to spend the money or time on them. Nowadays, with only 3 jobs, I actually have time to relax after work when I choose to, and binge watch reality shows. I also apologized to my daughter for judging her negatively during her YouTube binge watching years.
Reality competition shows, especially music, athletic, and invention programs, reveal something deeply hopeful about humanity. Watching an amateur singer step onto a stage trembling with fear only to discover a voice powerful enough to silence an entire audience reminds us that greatness often hides in ordinary people. The same is true for invention shows where creative minds solve practical problems with startling ingenuity. These programs may seem disposable on the surface, but they quietly showcase resilience, imagination, collaboration, and courage. Neuroscience studies suggest that emotionally meaningful storytelling activates mirror neurons and empathy networks in the brain, allowing viewers to emotionally experience the triumphs and struggles of others. In this way, television can become less about escape and more about connection to possibility itself.
There are evenings when I wonder if hours spent watching television could have been better spent reading, writing, or creating something tangible. Then, a young inventor presents an idea to clean polluted oceans, or a singer transforms heartbreak into art, and I feel something rare in modern life: hope. Not naïve hope, but evidence-based hope rooted in human creativity. We live in an age saturated with headlines about conflict, division, and technological fear, yet these small televised moments remind us that millions of people still wake up wanting to invent, compose, build, heal, create, and dream. The human brain remains astonishingly adaptive and imaginative. Even in entertainment, our species continues reaching for beauty and innovation.
Computers can process information faster than humans, but speed is not wisdom, intuition, or emotional meaning. Artificial intelligence can generate patterns, predict preferences, and imitate language, yet the human brain carries something far more mysterious: consciousness shaped by memory, suffering, joy, love, and imagination. A machine can analyze a melody, but it cannot feel what inspired the songwriter standing under the stage lights with tears in his or her eyes. Perhaps that is why these ordinary television evenings matter more than I usually admit. Beneath the commercial breaks and dramatic music lies a quiet reminder that humans are far smarter, kinder, and more creative than we often give ourselves credit for. Watching people sing, invent, move, and dare to never give up may not be a waste of time at all. It may be one of the ways we remember who we are becoming.
These tv shows are a reminder of our brilliance, our passions, commitments, desires, determinations, and dedications to the people and activities which we love. Remember, activities are medicine for the soul!
In Gratitude,
KJ Landis
@superiorself on Instagram and X
@SuperiorSelf channel on YouTube
@superiorselfwithkjlandis on TikTok
[email protected]
Books available everywhere!
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