As I have grown to be a young adult, I have acquired a taste for something that, as a child, bored me. No, I am not talking about higher education, while that may be true as well. I am actually focusing on home improvement. But why? I do not own a home to improve. However, I find myself watching an obscene amount of the Home and Garden Television Network. HGTV consumes most of my time, and I've noticed that my life is not the only one consumed by this addiction.
Whether it's a "Fixer Upper" or "House Hunters" marathon, I find myself lost within the show, and yelling at the home buyers for their inability to realize what they want with their budget just will not work. I yell at these people and critique their lives as if I actually know them. But the thing is, I'm not alone. I used to be embarrassed by the fact I binge watch HGTV shows on Netflix, in addition to watching the actual channel, but now I know that many other people suffer from their lack of self control. The positive thing about being addicted to HGTV, is that the community of HGTV watchers is a non-judgement zone, and will watch along with you for hours. I have bonded with my fellow HGTV watchers by yelling at couples for wanting a million dollar house, but only wanting to pay $150,000 for it. This is why the Scott brothers have four shows that are all basically the same because we can appreciate how they show home buyers their ideal house, and then crush all their hopes and dreams when they find out the actual price.
Of course, there are those times when we get so fed up with the people featured on HGTV that we hopelessly turn to TLC or Bravo! only to be disappointed by the reality shows, so we turn back to the awful couple that doesn't know what they want. Unfortunately, they will not change their ways despite how many times we will yell at them and request others to come join us in fussing at the TV. While these people that we invite to watch with us enjoy HGTV, they do not realize that this is only the beginning to their addiction. Soon HGTV will just be something they watch for background noise while they do homework, but before long they will be aggressively watching it. If they are like me, an annoying person featured on a show will put them in a bad mood for the rest of the day.
I am proud of my HGTV addiction. It took awhile for me to admit my problem, but now that I see how many people are just as obsessed with it as I am, I’m not sure that it is so much of a problem. I mean, I now know about how much islands typically cost and how long a full home renovation will take, so if that is not a positive takeaway, I don’t know what is.
