Alright so I have a confession to make. I'm being a little cowardly making it on this blog and not on Facebook but I know this is WAY safer as the Stat Counter tells me my visitors are few and far between at the moment! But enough procrastination, I must get to the point before I lose my nerve. OK here it is, deep breath....drum roll....awkward clearing of the throat....here goes.....I have watched Big Brother this year. More than one episode. In fact, quite a lot more than one episode. And hey, I may as well be hanged for a sheep as for a lamb...reader, I've been enjoying it. I have been in my little flat of an evening, chuckling, chortling and generally LOL-ing because of this programme. The reason I daren't admit this to anyone is that in the past few months I have seen a couple of people majorly crash and burn on their ill-advised and daring decisions to bring BB into a conversation, in the hope that some like minded soul would admit to sharing the guilty pleasure. But no, I have seen them subjected to a sudden outpouring of scorn, judgement, dismissiveness, and actually extreme rudeness on some occasions, and I have to say this reaction has shocked me a heck of a lot more than anything I have seen on Big Brother this year. Don't get me wrong, I don't need anyone to tell me that it is not an intelligent, highly cultured programme, or that it's not particularly intellectually, morally or spiritually enlightening, but any time I have seen it it has done what it says on the tin: provided amusement, clever and funny tasks this year (really!!), interesting chats and general entertainment enought to have me thoroughly chillaxed before bedtime.
I know that our TV screens are full to bursting with reality TV rubbish, but there does seem to be a hierarchy of what is more or less acceptable than others. Come Dine with me seems to be an example of one that it's fine to admit to watching. (although apart from the interesting recipes it can't really claim to be more high brow than others, the narrator is amusing but cruel and I know that all the more because of the mortification a colleague of mine suffered by going on it and being edited and manipulated beyond belief.) It got me thinking about what gives us the right to judge what I will now call other people's 'fluff time'. I mean let's start off working on the assumption that most of us spend the vast majority of our lives very productively either working or studying. Then let's go crazy and assume in addition to this we spend our time doing many of the following activities: spending time with family and friends, cleaning and tidying, grocery shopping, helping other people, eating, going to church, pursuing hobbies, going to the toilet, praying/meditating, doing exercise, reading intellectual books and sleeping. So really from a time management point of view, unless we are majorly neglecting things that are both essential and important to us and others in our lives, surely for some proportion of the day we are all entitled to a little 'fluff time'. No matter how highly cultured we are, surely each one of us has some 'fluff time' where we need to leave our brain at the door and going into a zone of just floating unthinkingly along. Some may just do this by staring into space but I personally spend mine doing the following: reading Heat (although I have a degree in English and French Literature), going to see romcoms at the cinema (although I often also go to QFT to watch French films too), watching Hollyoaks, Desperate Housewives or indeed Big Brother (although I watch serious and thought provoking documentaries too...sometimes), and going on Facebook (and no this is not a replacement for human contact, no I'm not addicted to it, yes I still actually speak to people in person and on the phone, I still send text and e mails and sometimes even snail mail), and listening to cheesy pop music (and I have a Grade 5 in Piano, Clarinet and Music Theory but I still enjoy chilling out to a cheesy and repetitive tune with vacuous lyrics that reminds me of a happy time or just gets my foot tapping). Your list is probably different to mine, and I would really love to hear it if you get a chance to post it below! You may roll your eyes, shoot me down, or mercilessly mock me for some of my choices on the list but have a think of what your own 'guilty pleasures' involve and tell me if they are really superior to mine. And surely enjoying a small amount of well earned 'fluff time' is more harmless than being mean and trying to judge or belittle people for how they use theirs, even if it's under the thinly veiled disguise of an attempt at humour. Dang, this has ended up pretty ranty, hasn't it? But do I have a point? You decide.
