I wholeheartedly agree with one particular aspect of Alex's argument regarding various forms of escapism: excessive escapism does more harm than good. In fact, I'm a stout advocate for the idea that absolutely anything, when taken to the extreme, inevitably lead to more harms than benefits. But I will save that argument for another day. The main issue in here concerns the addictiveness of TV. In and of itself, I believe TV is neither good or evil. As Alex said, when used in moderation, television watching provides a person an opportunity to relax while familiarizing oneself with the society, indeed, the whole world, in which he lives. TV enriches people's lives and provides a pleasant break from our hectic lifestyles. However, a person who occupies a majority of his time by watching TV and nothing else definitely wastes valuable time by not focusing on other activities such as work, study, or physical exercise.

Similarly, I believe daydreaming in moderation enhances our creativity and expands imagination by freeing the mind. However, too much daydreaming lead to similar problems as watching too much TV: people fail to dedicate time to other useful activities.

In effect, I do not think that TV and daydreaming, or escapism in general, can be categorized as good or bad because they foster addictive behavior. Indeed, arguing in such a way suggests a pushing of blames on anything but ourselves. I believe that we should have enough self-control to limit our enjoyment of escapism to a moderate degree. Perhaps failure to do so implies weakness within ourselves.

-- YinanZhang - 05 Feb 2009