University life is meant to broaden our horizons, open our eyes to things we’ve never seen and provide us with opportunities abroad. College is where we define who we are and what we will become. Everyone says now is the time to try new things: take a class just because it sounds fun, smoke some weed and backpack through Europe. We’ve heard it all, but I’m going to recommend another type of horizon broadening, and you don’t even have to leave your couch. I urge you to make the most of your college years by watching TV, and lots of it.

Here’s the thing: I had a fortunate childhood. I had no fewer than 50 channels for as long as I can remember. Cable and satellite allowed me to grow up in front of the TV. I loved me some PBS as a small child; eventually, I graduated into Nickelodeon, Disney Channel and Cartoon Network, which I held onto for an embarrassingly long time. My preteen years were ushered in by ABC Family and the WB and as I entered high school, I discovered the pop culture thrills of MTV, VH1 and Comedy Central. While my television tastes evolved across many networks, I still never regularly watched more than six or seven channels at a given time in my life. That is, until college.

When everyone told me to try new things, I took the mantra to heart with my remote in hand. I did a little channel surfing and discovered pretty much every network has something to offer.

My friend affectionately calls TLC “the freak show channel,” as it’s known for its oversize families, little people and rare diseases. But even if you’re not into those enthralling topics, TLC still airs “LA Ink” and “American Choppers.” Maybe we’re a little young (or the wrong gender) to be Women’s Entertainment’s key demographic, but the melodrama of “Bridezillas” is just as good as anything you’ll find on MTV’s “Parental Control” and “Next” and somehow feels a little more refined — after all, you are in college.

While I don’t carry a Y-chromosome, I like Spike TV. It airs syndicated re-runs of “Entourage,” and sorry, freshmen, the dorms don’t get HBO. They do get IFC, however. I was introduced to this lesser-known gem during my freshman year and fell in love with it because it airs “Whitest Kids U'Know” and “Freaks and Geeks,” which are actually pretty hard to find elsewhere. Speaking of geeks, Discovery might be nerdy, but “Man vs. Wild,” “Mythbusters” and “Dirty Jobs” have proven popular programs for geeks and non-geeks alike. If you still don’t like Discovery after watching those, I have two words for you: Shark Week.

I actually didn’t realize how many channels I used until the summer months. I left Ann Arbor for work in a tourist town and the employee housing was equipped with a common room, which was quite literally a shed with a couch in it. This shed also had a 20” TV with a grand total of two channels. Two. My parents grew up with more channels. At least the two I had were ABC and NBC — the two best channels I could ask for. I got to see Betty White on "SNL" and managed to commandeer the shed for the “Lost” finale, but still I missed so much and Hulu can only get you so far. I even had the fortune — nay, honor — of being selected as a Nielsen viewer, but I was bestowed with this great gift at the worst possible time. You have no idea how heartbreaking this was. Don’t ever take your 99 channels for granted.

When you think about it, it really is strange we have so many channels and watch so few. Cable allows program specialization and that’s good for you, the advertisers and the ratings. You can stay on one channel for hours and be entertained with every show, the advertisers know who you are and what to sell you and your devotion shows in the network’s numbers. Everyone wins. But we tend to get trapped in a box of those few stations whose channel numbers we’ve memorized: ABC, NBC, FOX, (not CBS), Comedy Central, MTV, MTV2, VH1, rinse, repeat.