I don’t just mean people saying ‘i hardly watch it’, I mean unplug it and see !
I didn’t have one for 6 months once but then my girlfriend moved in and demanded to watch soaps.
How long can you go without ‘the fix !’
Personally, I just have to have a good tranvestite once in a while. They are always so intimately familiar with how to love and caress all my secret orifices.
… um, wait, what was the question again?
I have been “master of my own TV domain” now for 7 days. I’m going to be moving soon, so I disconnected cable TV at the end of my last billing cycle (1/23). So I unplugged the cable box (which connected everything to everything else) and turned it in.
Now, because I’m a tech moron, I have no idea how to hook the TV & VCR back up so that I can tape, watch TV, etc. So the TV remains unplugged from the wall. I have NOT missed it one bit. (I wasn’t watching much anyway, but for to kill time on the weekend)
Okay, I admit, that this weekend I was at my SO’s house, and he had the TV on when I got there, so I did see a little TV for about 30 minutes. But had I not seen it, I would not have melted down into a trembling pile of goo. Besides, he doesn’t have cable, so it was a scratchy old movie from 1950 on UCSD TV.
But I’m totally on this anti-TV kick right now. I’ve been listening to NPR lots more, which I think is neat. (I guess that’s just trading one vice with another, but at least I can multi-task easier with radio than TV)
I’ve lost count of how many weeks it’s been since I actually sat down and watched anything on television (not counting “I wandered through the store and passed the TV department”-type scenarios, of course). I can’t identify anyone on Survivor, I don’t know who won the Super Bowl, and I don’t know how often people are becoming millionares. Don’t miss it one bit.
(I do have some taped shows that I want to copy, but I haven’t had time for that, either…)
[Moderator Hat ON]
Looks like a survey to me. Off to IMHO.
[Moderator Hat OFF]
I went without cable for a year and a half about 2 years ago. I was a single mom with 2 sons and little money so I had to “cut the fat” as they say, and the cable went. We didn’t miss it at all. When I started making a little more money and felt it was a justifiable expense, I had it turned back on, the digital cable, I admit it was pretty nice to go from no cable for over a year to the digital with DMX and 6 different Discovery channels and all the other features, but all in all, we really didn’t watch very much of it. I know Demo has gone without it for at least a year as well.
I’ve been here with Demo for a little over 6 months now, and we have talked about having the cable shut off, because outside of Jeopardy and occasionally Junkyard Wars and Jackass, we really don’t watch it. We do enjoy watching movies together, but that’s what Netflix is for.
Today is our last day of cable, it gets shut off today.
It will not be missed.
I went without having a TV in my apartment from the time I was 29 to when I was 32. It was no big deal.
Now that the Hyperbole[sup]TM[/sup] is past, I probably won’t turn on the TV for weeks or months, except to watch movies on the VCR. Mrs. F. and I just don’t watch much TV.
Now if you asked how long I could do without my computer…
I have not had TV since I moved into my new place in August. I rent a lot of DVD’s and read more than I have in recent years. I also go out and do more things. In short, I don’t really miss it. I thought that I would really miss it during hockey season, but it really hasn’t been an issue.
As long as I can get my weather fix elsewhere, ages.
I only pay attention to the one we have for news and weather. If my wife’s not home, it’s not on.
I could last until March, which is when new episodes of Farscape start.
Actually, I’d probably crack long before then. I like TV. I like having it on in the background while I work on homework or craftsy stuff, and there are many programs that I enjoy very much, and I feel that it’s well worth my time to watch them. I wish I had the discipline to do a little less random flipping, though–it’s such a time-waster. I’ve instituted a twice-around the dial rule–if I make it around twice, I’ve probably seen everything that’s on, and if there’s nothing interesting, I turn on the radio and/or pick up a book.
I get annoyed at people who don’t have cable, just a VCR, and if you mention a show to them, they’re like, “Sounds good! Can you tape it for me?” Tscha, right! I have cable so I can tape all the good stuff and give it to you? 'Cause I so enjoy interrupting my depraved tv-viewiong pleasure by messing around with the VCR? I don’t think so. All is forgiven, of course, if they offer to loan me some equally cool tapes or DVDs by way of compensation. (This might sound kind of strange to you, but I have a lot of cheap hippy friends.)
Forever. Like Saint Zero I used to watch it mainly for the weather. Since I downloaded a nifty little weather gizmo I literally haven’t turned a television on in weeks.
(I very idly decided to turn it on over the weekend while I did some housecleaning–and discovered the battery in the remote was dead. Heaven knows how long it’s been conked out.)
Kinda sad, really, because I have DSS satellite and enjoy some things, e.g. Iron Chef, some documentaries, once in a great while a movie. It’s mostly a matter of time. The free time I have is spent on SDMB or reading. Something had to give, and television went.
Veb
I could not care less.
One week, which is the amount of time between one episode of MST3K and the next.
Otherwise, it could be off and I’d never notice.
I could go forever without TV there is nothing good on it anymore. Excluding the SuperBowl the last thing I watched was the televised Cincinnati Reds games before I came to college which was in about umm July or so. I can go without since I have all my important Eddie Izzard files on my computer thank god
I am on a self-imposed television strike, and have been for the past four years. I actively dislike pop culture and all of the mediocrity for which it stands. I have seen less than four hours of television in the last four years…and it’s not so much the programs that I loath (there are a few scattered quality shows), it is the commercials in between that I abhor.
I read close to a thousand pages a week and spend much time online, so television has become extinct in my house. I do own a TV, VCR, and DVD player and I love watching movies, but I know none of the shows currently on air. It is fascinating to watch a friend’s face when he/she asks me if I saw some show or other, and I say that I do not believe in watching t.v. Their look of disbelief (bordering on pity) is priceless.
Television talk has become an invaluable means of small talk in the office or other social settings. We utilize this limited art of small talk, so that we can easily shy away from any deep or meaningful discussion. Television has become a suspension bridge spanning over the deep waters of thought to connect the shallow shores on either side. IMHO.
What Devorzhum said. I couldn’t agree more. About two years ago I had a friend living with me for a while. She had a TV, and called to get cable hook-up. When I told the tech that I hadn’t had cable or TV since I bought it 5 years ago, she reacted as if I’d been doing without indoor plumbing for that long. I have two TV’s in the garage because people feel sorry for me and give me their old ones.
I even tried making resolutions to watch one show a week, but then I would forget. Silly me.
My SO does have a giant sisboombah TV & satellite, and I admit I like curling up on the couch and watching movies with him.
[sub]I also like “Cops.” I am sooo embarrassed by this.[/sub]
I quit watching tv when I was about 16 because it was so offensive. Two X-mases ago I purchased cable for my kids and that only lasted a few months not only because it was still offensive but because it made my kids’ personalities change for the worse. IMO tv is evil and it should die.
My new year’s resolution for 1996 was to leave my television off for the entire year.
For fun, I almost took a photograph of the remote covered in dust at the end of the year.
I seem to recall reading between 20,000 and 40,000 pages that year. What a coincidence!
How long can I live without it voluntarily? Or how long do I get to live without it?
When I was single, I used to go for months at a time without it even occuring to me to turn the TV on (I had two.) However, now, I only get to do without it until the hubby comes home, or gets up in the morning, or whatever. :rolleyes: Then it comes on, almost all the time! And it’s so damned insidious! I’ll be going along, cleaning, or reading or whatever and all of a sudden, I realize I’m watching TV instead of whatever I’d been doing!
Whew! I’ll take up for the other side for a minute. I like TV. I watch it every day. I was thrilled when BBC America was added to our line-up. Huge chunks of Red Dwarf, Doctor Who on many times a week, Ground Force, Changing Rooms…this is what I needed.
I watch the “good” stuff, and I watch fluff. I like soaps. I like music videos. I like Nova. I used to like Biography, until they started doing really odd ones - tune in, it’s Fast Food Week! I want to see the Biography of Eleanor of Aquitane!
I also love to read. But the problem is, it’s hard to get a good book. The local library has an insane policy of selling off “old” books - Philip K. Dick, Dorothy Sayers, Georges Simenon - all gone.
I have no problem with people who don’t watch TV, or who don’t like TV. That’s fine with me. Actually, I’m annoyed when I go to visit someone and they watch TV the whole time I’m there. I understand if it’s something they really like, but if it’s just watch whatever’s on I feel irritated. When friends come over, I turn the TV off (and hit record on the VCR if needed).
But the answer the actual question - I don’t know how long I could go without TV. When I was a kid, I would go to camp for a week in summer. That was the longest I ever went without TV. I survived, but I wouldn’t want to try it again. I’m old and weak now. I might not make it…