I agree. We’ve all met that type: “Well, of course such things are beneath me. I have MUCH better things to do than partake of mass entertainment, because I’m so much smarter and more elite than those who do.”
Those who just take the “there’s really nothing on that interests me” approach don’t seem snobbish, just expressing their taste. It’s the ones who see not watching TV as a mark of intellectual or moral superiority that qualify as snobs.
Commercials are why I love my DVR. Saves me a lot of time, and I don’t have to put up with ads that are apparently written by and/or aimed at twelve-year-old boys, judging from the intelligence and maturity level.
I’ve also given up on over-the-air radio (I dislike talk radio and NPR anyway) because of commercials and motormouth DJs. If they would just shut up and play music, I might listen.
Same here. I’m getting rather tired of how everything’s videos these days instead of written format, which for me is faster than a video.
I have Hulu Plus, and it still seems to me like there are quite a few commercials. But then, I’m the most impatient person in the world. I used to get bored while FFing past commercials on my DVR.
That’s exactly how I am. I will take literally several hours to watch an hour-long TV show, because I keep pausing it every 30 seconds to do something else. But I can read for a long time because then I control the pace of it. I’m not being smug, I waste JUST as much time as anyone else, but just doing other things like playing around on the Internet. I actually really like some TV shows and try to keep up on them, but it takes a little effort (just finally got caught up on 30 Rock!).
I hate that!
What’s this about a license to own a TV?
Okay I’ve read the wiki on it and damn if it isn’t real. How is that enforced?
I had no idea this made me elite! I don’t have a tv because I don’t want one. I just don’t watch it. I watch TWD, Community, Modern Family and The Middle online. Other than that I just prefer silence after growing up with TV in the background 24/7.
I’m not a snob but I do like that I don’t waste hours and hours on TV anymore and I especially like that my little girl doesn’t live with it on in the background. I do feel kind of proud of myself that I got out of the habit and I keep my little girl away from all those damned commercials but I’m not bragging.
[quote=“chiroptera, post:12, topic:647970”]
For EmilyG and others who don’t own or watch TV (but watch stuff online etc) why?
[QUOTE]
I really don’t like most of the shows on TV.
Also, I guess I don’t technically own a TV myself. I live with my dad and sister, and there’s a family TV, but I never watch it.
Also, I find that I have better things to do with my time than watch TV. I often try to be productive in my spare time. (Is this coming across as snobbery?)
And when I move out on my own, I’m definitely not getting my own TV. If I’ll never watch it anyway, there’s no point.
I too don’t watch TV because of the commercials, and I am at a loss to understand how, in this day and age, people still put up with it. I watch everything I do on DVD or Netflix.
I am a little snobbish about no ads, I guess! I hate ads with a passion.
Watching TV is a guilty pleasure. It has a bad rep. Many consider it a waste of time and some consider it a corrupting influence.
Given the negativity, when someone mentions the mere fact “I don’t watch TV” to someone who does, it is not surprising the TV watcher gets defensive to some degree. One who feels defensive perceives themselves as having been “attacked” (why else defend?) and perhaps subconsciously tries to guess the motive of the “attack”. “This guy wants to demonstrate superiority” is a reasonable hypothesis and the conclusion is “he’s a snob.”
All this happens in one head only. The non-watcher had no participation in the label “snob”. The mere fact of not being a regular watcher of TV is perceived as negative by reflecting (in reverse) some of the negativity in actual watching.
DVR, Tivo, etc… I rarely ever watch anything in real time which means I rarely if ever watch commercials.
How is this such a new concept to people in this thread? 
I know…but I still hear people IRL all the time talking, complaining, bitching about commercials, and sometimes on these boards, too. And I go over people’s houses and they have…commercials. And they complain about how the news has commercials. (I never watch TV news).
It’s not that I haven’t heard about those things. It’s just that so many other people still seem to watch them for whatever reason. it’s the “I have to be home at X time, my show is on” mindset, and that is just beyond my comprehension. I’d rather wait until it’s on Netflix (i don’t have DVR or Tivo) than watch commercials.
Just think of it as a subscription to the BBC’s channels, designed before it was possible to control what channels people recieved, and it’s not that weird, especially as the BBC in the UK doesn’t play any ads.
Largely, they send out letters to anyone without a license, and occasionally send people round to check if they actually have a TV- both detector vans and people who knock on the door. I grew up in a house without a TV (I only had one for two years at an ex’s house) and don’t have one now either, but no-one’s ever bothered coming round to check.
For those saying they keep meeting smug people who constantly ‘boast’ about not watching TV- I suspect that’s at least partly because a fair proportion of people refuse to accept that most people who do not have a TV do not have one by choice, hence they must really want to know exactly what it is they’re not watching.
You wind up stuck in conversations like:
‘Hey, did you see ‘Attention Seeking Morons’ last night? God, wasn’t her voice was awful!’
‘No, I don’t watch it sorry.’
‘Oh, were you watching ‘Neighbourhood Slags’ instead? Leanne’s such a bitch, I’m not suprised Carl dumped her.’
‘I didn’t watch anything last night, I don’t actually have a TV.’
‘Awww man! You’re missing out! Right, Leanne’s been cheating on Carl with the guy who delivers croissants to the bakery, but he’s actually her long lost-identical twin who…’
It gets old.
I generally tell people I don’t watch TV unless David Attenborough’s in it, which isn’t far off true. I do watch some stuff online (you can watch BBC stuff on their website here, so long as it’s after the TV broadcast), but not that much. I find having TV on in the background horribly distracting, so I only watch things I’m really interested in, and I suppose it’s never been more than an occasional indulgence for me, not just a normal part of everyday life.
Yeah, you get these kinds of conversations a LOT. It’s gotten better now, though. With access to so many shows, people don’t assume that you are just interested in their ONE show.
I’m not getting that, but then… 
I’m not bragging when I say I don’t know a tv, but I’ve noticed people tend to take it that way. Typically, it comes up in one of two ways:
when someone mentions seeing something they saw and I’ve got nothing but a blank stare.
when someone asks how I have time to do something quite ordinary (train for a marathon, change my own oil on the car, learn another language, take a life drawing class).
In neither instance am I bragging, though in the second I am being critical. It’s a big pet peeve of mine when people go on about how they don’t have time to do the things they want, then describe the 12 hours of television they watched that week - most of which they hated.
As has been mentioned, once I got a computer it started seeping in. In an online conversation when someone makes a reference, rather than a blank stare I can go look up what they’re talking about (how I learned about “Archer,” for instance). But I think the computer also keeps you from vegging on junk you don’t like and move to doing something else. With the tv, people seem to just sit there.
Is it still OK for me to be a pompous know-it-all?
It has NEVER been okay. People just keep doing it because it’s fun.
It’s true, some non-TV watchers appear to go out of their way to proclaim they don’t watch TV. Kind of like Vincent, in Pulp Fiction.
I get the same kind of response from some people who don’t drink soda, like it’s a big accomplishment.
I think people are oversensitive about this sort of thing. Far more often than not, the “snobbery” is on the part of the recipient deciding that the speaker is judging them, when in actuality, the speaker is just saying “Meh, don’t really care for TV.”
I had someone GO OFF on me for “judging them” because I said, and I quote, “I try not to drink too much coffee” in the context of waking up in the morning, when, in fact, I was stating what my habit was.
“Hey have you seen the new episode of <show here>?”
“No, I don’t really watch TV.”
“STOP JUDGING ME!”
“…”
Not to say that there aren’t some people (some of whom appear to have posted in this thread) who feel a sense of moral superiority about it, but…yeah. I don’t really watch TV. This is because:
Cable is expensive
Commercials are annoying
I don’t miss it when I’m not watching it, so why should I pay money for a device to cut the commercials out of a show that I wouldn’t shed any tears over missing? (in addition to paying money for the service to have the show ‘broadcast’ to me in the first place?)
Most of the time the TV is busy playing video games anyway.
So it’s a combination of about 33% being cheap, 33% being lazy, 33% indifference, and 1% snobbery. 
Oh, and yeah. Whoever thought Youtube tutorials and walkthroughs for anything but the most visually oriented tasks were a good idea should be smacked upside the head. The last thing I want is to listen to some random internet person uhm and ah their way through a very, very slow explanation of whatever topic I’m trying to find out about.
Another thing: I don’t watch TV, but I do listen to the radio a lot. Mostly news and informational radio shows. I’m not fond of a lot of the music radio stations.
A nice thing about the radio is that I can listen to it while doing other things, if I so choose. Also, with radio news broadcasts, I never see gory pictures.
I wish I had more time to write a lengthy post for this topic, as it’s central to a number of my interests, but let me throw out the short version.
I went more than 20 years without watching any television at all - none, nada, zip, zero except that unavoidably on at a restaurant or someone’s house. Over the last five years, I’ve gradually started watching very selected TV programs - but 99% of the time it’s on disc or direct streaming, no commercials and no fixed time requirement.
I won’t say I’m better than you for not watching TV, but I will say I’ve had a hell of a lot of time to do other things that I think are more productive, more “enhancing” and sometimes even more restful that zoning out in front of the box. In the middle of that 20 year stretch I was extremely active intellectually and many people asked things like “how did you ever find time to do ____” - and the answer was that I wasn’t spending 2, 4, 8 hours a day watching TV like most of them. (Or even distracted from another task by having it on all the time - see below. I think a babble box in the same room lowers productivity no matter how much the non-viewer thinks it doesn’t.)
Now that “television” is a slippery term and it’s become more woven into the daily fabric - e.g., someone watching a stream or YouTube while nominally doing “work” or something else, it’s harder to nail down the impact… but yes, I think that most “television” is a waste of the viewer’s time, and that watching much less of it can only be a good thing, and that those of us who basically don’t watch any in the traditional sense have a leg up on those who do.
And despite trying, I utterly fail to grasp the mindset of those who have to have a TV (in any form) droning along from wake-up to fall-asleep, and I am boggled at how widespread this practice is.