Some of these shows can be meditative (like watching a seven-hour train ride through beautiful countryside) but they can also be informative or even entertaining (like watching a wood-chopping event). You can think of slow TV as reality TV without any of the editing. At best it can lead to dramatically shortened attention spans, but at worst can cause or exacerbate clinical depression. Unfortunately, the drama-heavy and addictive nature of modern TV is rarely good for the mind, the body, or soul. Indeed, traditional TV is manufactured to hook us in and keep us addicted, which is why so many people love to binge-watch shows like Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, and Stranger Things. None of this is "slow" in any sense of the word. Even unscripted reality shows, as they exist right now, are distilled and edited down to deliver the maximum amount of entertainment that will fit in an allotted broadcasting slot. This is a huge step away from traditional TV shows, which are deliberately scripted and designed to maximize drama-per-minute. For them, slow TV must be recorded with the intent to watch it after the fact. In fact, some even say that live coverage disqualifies a show from being slow TV so that includes things like sports). Slow TV is any kind of television coverage that occurs in real-time, though that doesn't necessarily mean that it has to be broadcast in real-time. A lot of people immediately think of Andy Warhol's Sleep (a five-hour film of a sleeping man) and the Norwegian Broadcasting Company's Bergensbanen (a seven-hour view of a train ride) and assume that slow TV has to be quiet, contemplative, and/or relaxing.
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