When TV is bad for you

You might know that I don't' do TV.
That's right: I see nothing good on it therefore I don't watch it.
That's not totally true since I do have one that was left with me ages ago.
It's the "rabbit ears" style small screen (I mean it: it's small) and shows only one channel in color, the others in B&W.
No cable for me baby, but occasional "snow" (real bad reception).
So why do I have it?
So I can watch some news in the evening to keep in touch with the world (it would be kind of socially inept if I did not know that 9-11 happened or the Tsunami disaster in Asia).
I had a TV (again, given to me because somebody felt pity on me) in Los Angeles.
Those two years were the least productive ones of my life.
I actually would look forward for the regular shows that the tube would provide to the masses.
While I never was a fan of Gerry Springer (it actually made me cringe) I would watch Friends.
Moving back to Australia I made the conscious decision to avoid the TV trap.
Even as a kid I realized that TV was junk and very little was worth of attention.
These days I prefer to tinker with fibreglass, sew on my industrial machine or read a book (no sci-fi for me though).
The technical posts on this blog are testimony to the creativity that the lack of TV brings.
At my current workplace I don't fit in too well with the younger crowd of commercial artist and animators where all the talk is about the latest cartoon movie release; I fit better when I used to work for REI or Chumba bicycles.
I choose to gravitate around people that "do stuff" versus the ones that like to watch the "stuff getting done".
Same with sports: I am interested in participating in a sport, rarely watching it on TV.
But one show really takes the cake: American/Australian Idol (I call it Idiot :-).
I know it's targeted to the younger generation but it's rather saddening to see that today's idols are just a bunch of manipulated puppets that can act/sing.
What happened to the idols that I had when growing up: great explorers, mountaineers, Olympic skiers and world travellers (and none were TV celebrities)?
For me there was so much more reality than reality TV, more tears over skinned knees and less over broken DSL consoles... I rode a bike, hiked the mountains and roamed the woods, skied in winter and windsurfed in summer.
So I was appalled when came across this Youtube video.

It seems that there is a need for a reality check...