Wallace gathers his insights and arguments regarding the state of TV and American fiction during the early 1990s, the same period in which he was writing his novel Infinite Jest (1996). Wallace thinks that society tends to ignore TV as a medium and that fiction writers should take it more seriously. Throughout the essay, Wallace insists that he is not criticizing TV as inherently evil or destructive, but he nevertheless outlines how it has a corrosive effect on society.

Wallace begins by describing how TV, as a medium, is unique in that it allows people to observe other people without having to be observed themselves. Thus, people can avoid the “psychic costs of being around other humans” (22). On average, Wallace states, a US citizen (in the early 1990s) watches TV for six hours a day. Although people spend so much time watching television, Wallace does not consider this act of watching others voyeuristic, since everyone involved in TV (including production, broadcast, and consumption) is conscious of the arrangement. However, TV provides false intimacy, and any attempt to “act natural,” Wallace notes, is inherently and ironically impossible. As a result, TV distorts society’s impression of humanity, especially by emphasizing the idea of “watchableness” in pursuit of higher viewing numbers rather than

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