Heh, TV only wastes time that could also be "wasted" in some other way. I consider TV-watching time as "idle time", and people are going to do that anyway regardless of what devices are around to amuse them.

If you could magically remove the television from history but leave all its "useful" spinoff technologies (i.e. a good chunk of modern electronics!), I don't think society would be any more productive. Although the sports equipment and games industries might be a bit bigger.

- J