American reality was there before the screen was invented, but everything about the way it is today suggests it was invented with the screen in mind, that it is the refraction of a giant screen.

SCREEN (n.)
1. a flat surface on which a picture or series of pictures is projected or reflected
2. something that shelters, protects, or hides

"Just as the public space has become diminished as a civic site, the home has become, in many senses, a more public, open forum. The public world comes into each home as it never has before through television, radio and personal computer. So that rituals that were once shared conspicuously in a group are now still shared - but in isolation."

The television occupies the space. It is the only thing comfortably placed. Its light passes out. The blue glow illuminates the man's face.
He is, in fact, bathed in the light of the television. The man finds security in the television. He warms himself up in the light of the electronic fire. But in so doing he is alienated, detached from traditional space.