Gogglebox: The Surprising Answer for People Who Struggle to Relax

In a world where ‘hustle culture’ and ‘self-improvement’ dominate the virtual landscape, it can feel like every waking second of your day needs to be accounted for by some meaningful activity that will push you towards an important goal. But actually, it’s okay to just relax and do something that seems completely pointless.

I still remember the conversation eight years ago, when my then girlfriend (now fiancé) asked me if we could watch Gogglebox together that night.

What’s Gogglebox?

I remember feeling personally attacked at the idea that we would sit down for a precious hour of our lives to watch other people — yes, other people — watch TV.

Why the hell would anyone want to watch other people watching TV?

Conversations with friends subsequently revealed that I wasn’t the only person thinking this. Most people seemed to agree with the sentiment that this program couldn’t be anything more than a complete waste of time.

But this was eight years ago, and a lot has changed.

My experiences might not be generalisable to everyone, but growing up, my family always stressed the importance of extra-curricular pursuits and goal setting. From piano lessons to karate, every weeknight after school was spoken for. If you wanted to watch TV, homework and practice had to come first.

Our first games console was a Nintendo GameCube in 2001, and the original ruling was that you could play a maximum of 30 minutes per day on a weekend. This had to be weighed against allocated TV time. Just like any kid would think, these seemed like tough rules to me. But you can’t fault how clear the message was: TV and screens are a waste of time.

I’m grateful for this structured upbringing and I feel like I could almost describe myself as a competent adult as a result of it. Like many aspects of childhood though, I see it as a blessing and a curse now because the end result is that I am overcome with a feeling of guilt every time I want to spend a free moment watching (trashy) TV and chilling.

Coupled with a mainstream (social) media that now glorifies hard work through pretentious soundbites prioritising ‘success’ over sleep and endless videos about morning routines that shame anyone who get’s up later than the crack of dawn, it can feel like a steep task to justify doing, well… nothing.

And I bet I’m not the only one.

After all, the ever-growing self-help industry does seem to thrive on guilting people into feeling like they should be doing more.

I choose not to accept this notion; I am a working adult and I deserve my relaxation. I say that we all need to build the skill and the foresight to allow ourselves to relax in our downtime.

So why Gogglebox?

Gogglebox is, of course, not the only answer, but there are a few reasons why it’s a fitting solution to subdue your apprehensions if you’re a guilt ridden tv watcher like me.

Firstly, you’re watching other people watch TV, so this normalises and reaffirms your decision to do exactly the same thing. It shows you that sitting with your family, getting a takeaway, unwinding and watching TV is okay. The show features people from all sorts of backgrounds and yet, they are all sitting down or snuggled up doing exactly the same thing.

Second, the show features a wide range of channels and genres and it’s always sure to cover major political events, current affairs and news. This means that after watching the show you are actually up to date with all of the latest popular shows that people are talking about and you don’t need to waste any of your time watching the news. You also get the benefit of watching people’s reactions to these events in real time which gives you a good sample of opinions on big topics, before the message is hijacked by sensationalist media.

Finally, there is an instant familiarity to Gogglebox that even the show’s greatest sceptic couldn’t deny. The cast of the show are all mostly down to earth and whimsical, which eases the digestion of some of the more troubling political news of recent years. It’s reassuring to watch countless people laugh and call Matt Hancock a ‘twat’ for example and know that people have more in common with each other than you may have otherwise imagined.

So, what was the point of this post?

I think that I’m trying to say that it’s okay to relax and watch TV that isn’t critically acclaimed and that just like jumping in at the deep end, Gogglebox is a good place to start. It is surprisingly loaded with sentiment and value anyway.