Confession time. I don’t watch TV. None. We have a TV at home, but its reception is lousy. Yes, we could get cable, but on our budget, it’s a bit expensive and do we really need it?
I get my news and weather from the 'Net. The main reason we turn it on is to watch videos, etc.
Otherwise, I’m too busy reading or catching up on the mundane stuff in life. I’ll admit I do spend a good amount of time online, either reading this msg. board or talking to friends via IRC, ICQ or one of the IM services.
Sometimes I feel like I’m missing a lot of popular culture; I missed the entire “Survivor” escapades, I’ve never seen “Will and Grace” or “Futurama.”
Okay, I turned on the set to catch the returns on the election early last month, but that’s the last time I tried using it.
Has TV faded from anyone else’s life, too? Or am I the only one who’s gotten bored of its mindless drivel?
30 minutes a night while I am on the treadmill.
A&E, Discovery,The Learning Channel, Public TV. That’s it.
I have never seen any of the sitcoms or other stuff I see references to in the two newspapers I get each day or hear people talking about. We don’t have the TV in the room where we sit. It’s down in the basement where the work-out stuff is.
A few months ago I was in a hotel room and clicked the TV on. It’s amazing how bad it is when you have a little distance from the medium. I turned it off and read a book.
Yup, I don’t watch TV anymore either. Although my TV didn’t so much fade as it exploded in a fiery cloud of smoke and electric sparks.
It’s been a few weeks now and I don’t really miss it as much as I thought I would. I’m seriously considering not replacing it. It’s amazing how much time has been freed up.
I might even try reading one of them thar “books”.
I didn’t have a TV of my own for a year and a half. I just got a new one a month or two ago. I was excited to be able to watch again, but crikey! Full of boring, annoying, unworthwhile programming. I like very much to see The Simpsons and nature programs again, but mostly I think I’ll stick to books.
We have a tv, and cable, too, but I never really go into the television habit. MisterTot is a television addict, though, so I guess I absorb some of it through hearing him watch while I do other stuff.
I’m thinking about taking the radical step of cutting all tv off during TinyTot’s waking hours. Has anyone ever sucessfully weaned a five year old off of tv?
I watch “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” every other week or so, depending on whether it’s on the TV in the laundromat when I’m doing my wash. Other than that, I watch zero TV.
I really don’t think TV is necessarily mindless drivel; there are a lot of worthwhile programs that I used to enjoy. I’ve just gotten out of the habit and prefer my Internet, gaming, movie-watching, reading, and sporting activities.
We haven’t had a TV for more than 3 years. Sometimes I miss being able to rent a movie or hear about something on TV that sounds interesting, but, truthfully, we don’t really have time to watch it anyway and I enjoy reading at least as much.
Tatertot:
Our daughter (3 1/2) watches some TV at the babysitter’s but never at home. When we’ve gone to her grandparent’s or somewhere that has a TV, I have just said “No, we’re not going to turn it on.” So far there hasn’t been much in the way of complaints. Interestingly, she has never asked why we don’t have one at home.
My experience is that kids will complain for a while, but eventually they will just get interested in something else.
We have one; watch it mostly just to flick through channels or watch “Behind the Music” on VH1. Really, I don’t watch any show regularly at all. I wish I could turn off our cable but its important to my hubby so we keep it. Waste of money if you ask me, but its something he enjoys so I guess its worth it.
Jeez, whatta bunch of pretentious intellectual snobs . . . Yeah, there’s a lot of “mindless drivel” on TV (though, hey—don’t underrate mindless drivel!).
But there are also a lot of fascinating documentaries, brilliant old movies, one or two really clever comedies, in-depth news coverage, and the kind of pop culture that makes being a Global Villager fun.
You all know I’m an avid book-reader, and I watch less tee-vee than most people—but there IS enough worthwhile on to plug the sucker in!
In terms of hours, I think I watch a lot of TV, but it’s almost all sports. At present, it’s about 3 or 4 football games per week and 1 or 2 hockey games. This adds up to a lot of viewing hours. About half of these hours are viewing the TV in a sports bar.
I like watching the documentaries and old movies and some of the other quality programming that’s out there, but I’m not in the habit of remembering when things are on. It’s rare that I see something good advertised, and then actually remember to turn on the TV at the right time. I have a knack for turning it on at the END of a decent show.
When we remember, I like to watch Whose Line Is It Anyway. We also let the cat watch cartoons (but mostly because we like watching the cat watch cartoons).
I don’t really have anything against it. I grew up watching and enjoying pretty much unrestricted amounts of mindless drivel. I’m actually surprised myself that we haven’t gotten around to getting another TV. (It was practically the first thing I did when I had to live by myself for a year.)
I don’t restrict Hannah’s TV because I don’t like it, just because she watches plenty for a 3-year-old during the weekdays. (She also learns colorful phrases from TV. Last night she claimed that she couldn’t go to her sitter’s on Monday because it was Kate’s (the stuffed rabbit’s) birthday. When I replied that Kate would have to have her birthday some other time, she put her hands on her hips and said, “Oh, you’re just jealous.”)
But I honestly think that, at this point in our lives, with 2 full time jobs and two little kids, even an hour of TV in a typical evening would be too much.
I suspect that when they kids are old enough to sit through a whole movie, TV will once again make an appearance.
I haven’t owned a TV in 2 1/2 years, ever since the light dimmed on the last one and I didn’t bother to repair it. I only miss the set for reruns of MASH, Cheers and Frasier; otherwise I’m happy to read and write instead with the freed-up time. Yes, if I’m at a bar or someone’s home and someone happens to have the TV on I will casually attend to it until the commercials appear. I think the commercials are a main reason I didn’t bother to fix or buy a new TV.
I don’t own a car either, by choice; in fact, I’ve never owned a car in my life, and I’m nearing forty. Perhaps I should start my own thread about that.
I watch a lot.
Yes, lots is drivel. But some of it is good drivel, which makes it worth watching. And some is bad drivel, so I avoid that.
And a lot is very, very good.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say that its a necessity, but I would miss it if it went away.
Tatertot-
While growing up, my dad sent us kids through various phases of television rules (each lasting 6 months to 3 years) where:
-we weren’t allowed to watch anything but PBS,
-or we weren’t allowed to watch anything but PBS and a few parent-approved shows,
-or the TV was put in the closet permanently,
-or the TV was put in the closet, but taken out for the World Series and the Super Bowl, and then put back
-or we weren’t allowed to watch any TV during the week, but could tape parent approved shows and watch during the weekend
The announcement was made, and that’s the way things were for the foreseeable future. And if it meant less TV, then we would whine for awhile (more often than not with open books in our hands, we were reading a lot anyway), and then get over it.
I haven’t owned a TV in over 5 years. A couple years ago I rented a house that had a TV but no cable. I’d watch maybe a half hour 2 or 3 nights a week, then maybe some sports on the weekends. The only time I wish I had one is when riding the turbo trainer. Music isn’t distracting enough to keep me going more than 30 minutes.
I don’t own a TV either. When I did, I never watched it, unless someone wanted to watch something while at my house. My SO has a giant screen & satellite, though, & I enjoy snuggling on the couch & watching movies or documentaries. I don’t feel like I’m missing a thing by not seeing Survivor, the show about the skinny chick lawyer, Who Wants to be a Millionaire, or any of those. It’s not intellectual snobbery - I enjoy dumb sitcoms as well as “good” TV. I can just always think of something else I’d rather be doing.
Funny though. I’m a painting contractor, and we just completed painting the common areas on five floors of a nursing home. There was TV on all day on each floor, and I was entranced by daytime programming. My employees teased me because I spent alot of time open-mouthed in front of the box with the little old drooling ladies in wheelchairs.
I watch a few hours of football a week during football season, but after the Hyperbole at the end of January, the TV will go back to gathering dust. We don’t watch Survivor, WWTBAM, or even West Wing or The Simpsons.
It’s not that I’m a snob about it; I recognize that there is good stuff on TV. But we’re avid readers, and of course I like to spend a lot of time posting here and at Fathom, and between that and the usual work/marriage/friends/household chores, TV gets kinda squeezed out.
And we don’t get to see a lot of the good stuff on TV: since we watch so little to begin with, $30/month for cable seems a waste for the couple hours a month we might actually watch; and broadcast reception out here (35 miles from downtown DC, 55 from Baltimore) takes enough fiddling that you really have to want to watch something to make it worth the while.
So I don’t watch TV. It’s not because there’s nothing good on; it’s just that, due to a number of factors, it’s lost out in the battle for the handful of free hours I have. And even now, I need more time to do the things I really want to do; even if I had more time, the hours would fill themselves without any help from the television.
I’m with Eve and Amarinth. Right, no one here watches TV. They also don’t pass gas or pleasure themselves. I am a college-graduate, magna-cum-laude TV lover and proud of it!
Many uses of the computer are just as big a waste of time as the TV, by the way. Yes, much of it is educational, but most of it is just for fun.
In fact, I even admit that I have the TV on in the background as I type this.
I grew out of the TV habit when my ex and I split up, and I didn’t have a TV. Right now I only have 3 must-see shows a week, and pick up a few minutes here and there because my sister often watches TV in the living room.
I grew up as a TV addict. I have to admit that freeing myself of being tied to the TV schedule has made me a happier person. I can’t stand watching TV all evening now. I get restless when we rent movies now too. I usually can’t sit on the couch staring at the TV all night anymore, even if we’ve got movies I wanted to see.
I don’t have a problem sitting in front of the computer for hours at a time, so maybe I just replaced one addiction with another…
I don’t have a problem sitting in front of the computer for hours at a time, so maybe I just replaced one addiction with another…**
You and I are very alike on that point. I spend too much time on the Net, even if it is chatting with friends or looking up information. sigh But it is easier to turn off than TV.
I do agree, there are good programs on, but finding the grain in the chaff isn’t easy.
Hey, it’s nice to see that I’m not the only one! I hate television. I have a set but it remains unplugged unless I have visitors who can’t live without it. I have so much more free time now!