There are 2 parts to this. I used to , as many others do , watch tv when i was bored. { why espn was formed } After watching oprah , judge judy and the local news i was bored and depressed. A study done years concluded that watching tv depresses people. I believe it.
Then a funny thing happened. The united states converted from analog to digital and i was left with one tv channel to watch. The first image i remember from watching the lone channel i was left with was a guy in a white shirt riding a horse. It was ken-y doing te regalo amores one of the greatest spanish pop songs of the last decade. I was left with channel 40 in the bay area or mtvtres the spanish mtv station which plays both american and spanish videos.
The music is amazing. I can't get bored watching lady gaga , daddy yankee {their michael jackson} , paulina rubio , sharkira , juanes { their james taylor of sorts } , nelly furtado , calle 13, alicia keyes etc etc. The latin pop scene has probably equaled or passed the american pop scene. Any of these artists can draw 200,000+ in mexico. You have to see someday the ken-y & rkm te regalo amores , nelly furtado/juanes or david bisbal/rihanna videos. Its known that music { univerally } makes people happy.
The other part is i use to go to san francisco and there would be nothing to do in the downtown area except for herman plaza/chinatown. No places to go and nothing to do. Then sony built a park and the meteron in downtown sf. { movies , an arcade , a waterfountain , a merry go around for kids etc. } Then they redid union square and neiman and other stores came in. Finally westfield built an incredible 5 or 6 level mall fit for a king which is packed all day. The mayor wants to make sf into another paris and has a long ways to go but is slowly getting there. SF is packed with tourists. I don't know if all this is good but it feels good at times. In life every bit helps. Everything counts.