Particle accelerators take things like protons and electrons, pack them into a device, and then launch the particles into an unwavering collision course with one another. Though this sounds like a lot of fun (like crash-testing cars), the goal is actual results, which the observers hope are significant and not a waste of time.
Television sets, the soon-to-be-obsolete kind with cathode ray tubes, are examples of particle accelerators, and the violence within these boxes results in programming, which the viewers hope is not a waste of time, having learned long ago to not expect significant results.