Well, do you? I admit I am always surprised when someone mentions that they haven’t got one.
Please mention where you live. And, if you haven’t got one, please tell me why.
We have tvs, and we use DirecTV (satellite) and TiVo. We live in the US.
Here in New York City, you get pretty spotty reception without cable, and we don’t watch enough TV to justify paying for cable. So no TV, although I will go to the bar around the corner to watch the Giants game in football season, and we watch DVDs on our computers. I haven’t had a TV in years, and don’t really miss it, plus my computer is a big enough time-suck as it is.
No TV. But I have a USB HDTV tuner on my computer, a big monitor, and a small apartment. I watch whatever’s available via rabbit-ears (local hi-def stuff).
I live with my parents (ugh).
3 TVs in house, one each bedroom we inhabit and one in living room.
Their computer is hooked up to cable, used mainly for DVR but mom watches live TV while on the treadmill too.
I watch a lot of video on my laptop as well.
Cannot live without watching DVDs. But I know someone back in Albuquerque who refuses to have one to this day. And way back when I lived there, I did not have one and count that time among my happiest.
I have 2 tvs- one in my son’s bedroom, and one in the living room. I refused the cable guy’s offer to wire my bedroom because I never want to retreat from life so much that I take to my bed and watch tv on a regular basis, so I don’t have a tv in there and don’t plan to ever.
I just started sort-of dating a guy that doesn’t watch tv or movies and hasn’t in decades. It’s strange… I’ll be like, “Hey, did you see… never mind”, or I’ll quote a line from a movie or Seinfeld or Southpark and just get a blank stare.
No TV.
Although I try not to bring it up because people either think it is weird or they think that I think that I’m somehow superior since I don’t have one.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
The reality is…I’m addicted to TV and have been since I was a kid.
At a certain point I realized that I’d spent countless months of my life in front of the tube watching reruns of Gilligan’s Island and I regretted the lost time.
So I decided to get rid of the TV.
Then, on several occasions, I decided I would get (or borrow) a TV for just a show, or for the playoffs or whatever, and I essentially relapsed.
It became crystal clear that I could not watch just a game, or an hour or two of TV.
I would sit down to watch one show, and 6 hours later I would stagger to bed.
If there is a TV in the house I will watch it all night, every night.
I can’t stop myself.
Now, if I want to see a game, I go to a bar. Funny I’ve never had a problem with alcohol, and I can’t stay at the bar all night drinking, so I leave after the game.
Moreover, TV permeates the culture. I could probably tell you a lot about current shows even though I’ve never seen any. I know who got kicked off dancing with the stars, I know about American Idol, and many more, even though I’ve never seen a single episode. TV stories are reported in the news, they are talked about by people constantly, TV stars are interviewed on the radio. You don’t have to have a TV in order to be informed about what is on.
So anyway, I don’t have a TV because I can’t control how much I watch, and because I don’t like my life when I watch too much.
I love watching TV. Only have one, in the living room, and I find that I use it more than half the time for watching programs On Demand, but I like TV a lot.
Joe
This is what the guy I mentioned in my post above yours said about his no-tv-watching self, pretty much.
Sometimes when I meet someone who doesn’t have a tv, I joke, “Oh, so you think you’re better than me, huh?” And also I feel like I have to make it crystal clear that just because I do have a tv, that doesn’t mean I watch it all the time. “I really only watch a few shows a week, just for fun- I mean, I can stop any time I want, you know, really, it’s not that important to me…” :smack:
I didn’t have a television for 7 years. I eschewed watching television even at other people’s houses and listened to a lot of NPR and other public radio instead. But then several events happened, chief among them, 9/11. It made me think it would be good having one for major events like that. TikkiDad got me one* for Christmas that year and it was a few weeks later I saw footage of the towers collapsing for the first time (except for a small segment online.) Even though it was months later, I still felt the slackjawed disbelief folks seeing it live (on television or from nearby) must have felt.
Now, I watch too much television and wish I had the will to turn it off except for the programs I really want to see.
*A great big ol’ 15 incher, which is just fine with me. It has a built-in VCR player that I’ve used two or three times.
My dad, aged 75, doesn’t have a TV. He’s fanatical about spending all his available time on his work, and feels he can’t afford the time lost by watching TV. He doesn’t do much recreational reading, either.
I’ve got an ancient 13" TV/VCR combo. I refuse to get a bigger TV 'cause I know I’ll just watch it more. Same reason I also don’t have cable; when I did, I wound up just having it on all the time.
On the TV, I only watch local reruns of the Simpsons/Family Guy and the occasional broadcast CSI episode. Any other shows I want to watch, I either wait for the DVDs or download an episode to watch on my laptop.
I have one, came with the apartment. It is not plugged in.
I have two TVs. One is not plugged in, and is sitting on the floor. The other is two years younger than me, and is also sitting on the floor (no console yet). I get 5 channels or so, and never turn it on. I just got my PS2 back so maybe it will find some use in the summer. Right now the computer covers everything a TV provides.
Of course I have a TV, but I only really use it to watch football. And the NBA playoffs. And I keep the Mets game on in the background most nights. Oh, and of course The Simpsons and South Park. And, ok, 30 Rock is pretty funny. And I do try to watch whatever the new hotness on HBO is; they put out good stuff. Also I guess I do see every new Daily Show and Colbert. Um, and the NFL Draft is this weekend, so, admittedly, I will have to put 16 hours or so into that. And it’s an election year, so I’ve got to watch the Newshour (Shields & Brooks on Friday is the bomb). And you should definitely scout ahead on IFC and tivo a few interesting movies every week – quality independent films don’t fall into your lap, you have to seek them out.
But aside from little stuff like that, I really only use the TV to check the weather. (It’s apparently been gorgeous in New York this week, by the way.)
Yup. Sex and the City. I’d never seen it but you couldn’t help but hear about it back in the day. Also, I’d never seen a Taco Bell Chihuahua commercial but it was impossible not to know more than I wanted to know about the mutt anyway. Not to mention what Brad and Angelina and their ilk were up to on a daily basis.
I can’t understand folks who have to have the best and biggest television they can afford (or can borrow money for) or have to have televisions in several rooms in their homes. A good friend of ours has two very big ones. One is on 24/7. If they’re not even home or sleeping, it’s to keep the dog company (even if he’s been put outside.) Ohhhkay. The other is on much of the time they are home. Their daughter and her family just bought a huge screen television even though their home went into foreclosure and they had to move to a rental.
Me, I’ll stick with my little outdated guy as my only telly probably until one or the other of us dies. Yes, I watch more of it than I’d like but there’s still significant stretches during the day when it is off. I will never have more than basic cable either and have no qualms going back to rabbit ears if need be.
I have a TV, 13 or 15 inches I think. It was a gift from friends, who bought a larger TV with a working VCR. Since I watch all my movies on DVD on my computer, I didn’t mind the broken VCR. This will only be used in Missoula (currently there for school), unless I end up having an apartment in Olympia (hometown). I have the cable package that is free through the school.
I didn’t have any TV for all of my first year here and half the second; even though it’s really nice to have it now I sort of wish I didn’t have it- it’s definitely a distraction.
At my parents’ house, we have a larger TV that’s 3-5 years old (all I can remember was that we got it while I was in high school), with digital cable and a DVR that is sort of fail. (It’s Comcast and they’ve had to replace the DVR after full hard driver failure TWICE.)
I have seven TVs. 52" flat screen in the LR, 36 CRT in the FR, several in the bedrooms. One in my office (and is also one my my computer monitors), one in my wife’s office.
College student here, single apartment, no TV. I watched TV all the time back home but I can’t say I miss it. Of course, when I do visit the folks and I’m not eating dinner or catching up with them, I’m generally in front of the TV.
No. I’m 35 and I’ve never had one. (Grew up without one.) I’ve mostly lived in California. The only time there was one in my house was when I lived with some roommates who had one. And I didn’t like how I tended to eat all my meals in front of it. I didn’t watch it that much, really, but it can tend to suck you in.