# I don't have a TV, deal with it. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 6, 2004, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-have-a-tv-deal-with-it/273307 "2004-11-06T02:39:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2004, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-have-a-tv-deal-with-it/273307/21 "2004-11-06T16:01:07Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > You don’t own a TV? But… but… but what do you plug your Playstation into?! I don’t know about other people, but my Playstation is currently plugged into my TV card in my computer through an A/B switchbox. I don’t have a TV, I have a TV card and a TV app. The computer is an all-in-one entertainment system, perfect for a cramped dorm. I’ve got the Playstation 2 upright wedged between the monitor and the right speaker and the Dreamcast on top of the monitor on a little shelf I found at Bed, Bath, and Beyond along with a fan. The computer handles the TV card, the game systems (indirectly through the TV card), DVDs, computer games, CDs, MP3s, and my satellite radio. I’ve also got FM through the TV card and a second app. Who needs a TV? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2004, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-have-a-tv-deal-with-it/273307/22 "2004-11-06T16:07:15Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > **Mr. Blue Sky** , project much? I am not condescending towards people who watch TV. I like TV fine! I just happen to not have one. Kyla, not read my entire post much?: > [@](#): > > Sometimes, when people who don’t own a TV say that to someone else, it’s with a superior tone of voice. They make it sound like owning a TV is a cardinal sin. Maybe it’s not intentional, maybe it is. **Not saying that you say it that way.** See bolded part. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2004, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-have-a-tv-deal-with-it/273307/23 "2004-11-06T16:14:12Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > That’s right. I don’t have a TV! And yet I somehow manage to survive! > > It’s not that I have anything against TV. I grew up watching TV, my parents have a TV, my dad gets pissed if I call during the Simpsons, and I have my favorite shows. But when I moved out of the house, I was broke and a TV didn’t seem like the best use of my money. So I didn’t buy one. Then I had a roommate for a year and she had a TV. At first I was pretty excited - ooh, shiny! But after a while the novelty sort of wore off and I would go for weeks without even turning the thing on. Now I’m living alone again and still, no TV. I can watch DVDs on my computer (I have eight seasons of TV shows on DVD, even) and I have a Netflix subscription, so any time I want to veg out, I can. . Some people that cannot afford a TV collect soda cans and cash them in. It only takes a few months of work before you could buy a decent one. Some people will even just give them to you if you go door to door. I have a few spare cans next to my desk if you want them. Also, organizations like the Salvation Army and Goodwill often have TV’s to sell pretty cheaply. Sure, some of them may have cracked cabinets and missing a channel or two but at least that is better than the alternative. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2004, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-have-a-tv-deal-with-it/273307/24 "2004-11-06T19:49:06Z")
Actually, **Kyla** , I get a similar reaction, a lot. But I have a TV. What I don’t have is cable. I use my TV for my anime. Some movies. And more anime. I get the ‘Why do you have a TV if you’re not getting cable?’ or ‘I would kill myself with a plastic bottle if I didn’t have my cable,’ comments all the time. I even had my roomslime complaining because I got msyelf a TV and didn’t bother to get cable, and he wanted cable. (Mind you, he wasn’t willing to **pay** for cable, he just wanted it.) Some people just can’t accept that their tastes are not universal. Of course others of us know that the people who look down on anime are all blinkered, benighted, psuedo-intellectual, microencephalic borons with racist tendencies. But **that’s** different. \ ---
**Author:** ![Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4da419/32.png) [@Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gala_Matrix_Fire)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2004, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-have-a-tv-deal-with-it/273307/25 "2004-11-06T20:20:32Z")
For people who think you’re adopting a superior attitude by announcing you don’t have a tv, you can reassure them that you do waste many hours of your time posting on internet message boards. ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2004, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-have-a-tv-deal-with-it/273307/26 "2004-11-06T21:06:48Z")
Most of the time, if I’m home the TV is on. Often it is just background noise (reruns of just about anything, but especially _Cops_ and _World’s Wildest Police Videos_, are excellent for that purpose), but there are a handful of shows I like so much that I’ll tape them if I’m not home when they air (_Desperate Housewives, NCIS, Lost, West Wing, Life as We Know It, The OC_, etc.). I have basic cable, not digital, and I don’t subscribe to any pay channels. If Netflix ever goes out of business, though, I will most likely go back to digital cable. _{grin}_ My officemate is on the other end of the spectrum. She owns a TV, but hasn’t even heard of most shows let alone seen an episode. She has never really been a TV watcher: she has no idea what _WKRP in Cincinnatti_ is about, had never heard of _Welcome Back, Kotter_, and knows that there was a show about army doctors but can never remember the acronym. We’ve been officemates for 3 years, and I now function as a sort of translator for her: if someone is in our office talking with her and they make a reference to some TV catchphrase or something, when I see the blank look on her face I just say, “it’s a TV thing” and she goes “oh, ok.” Yesterday she was reading an e-mail that a friend sent her, and she asked me, “Um, what do the letters ‘OC’ mean in terms of television?” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2004, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-have-a-tv-deal-with-it/273307/27 "2004-11-06T22:49:02Z")
Sure life is possible without television’s warm glowing warming glow. But it is no longer worth living. You don’t need money to enjoy the bounty of the airwaves. The set in my bedroom is older than I am. Yet, its output has a much better signal to noise ratio than I do. You don’t need a built in DVD player. You don’t need cable-readiness. All you need is that beautiful tube, and power, channel, and volume controls that work. You say you don’t need television? Oh, my brothers and sisters, this is only because you don’t realize how empty your lives are. Imagine that you came to an isolated land which had never known chocolate-chip cheesecake with hot fudge. You tell the king of this forsaken place that you have something which will bring him great joy. He tells you that he doesn’t need it. He tells you that with all his wealth and his vast supply of ice cream and brownies there is nothing you could offer him. You are that king! Riches you may have. Happiness you may have. But you stand there in your blindness and tell me you don’t need all these fantastic channels of chocolate chip cheesecake with hot fudge? Come on my brothers and sisters, and all you folks out there in TVland! Turn on! Tune in! Rise up! ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2004, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-have-a-tv-deal-with-it/273307/28 "2004-11-06T23:18:25Z")
> [@bluethree](#): > > For people who think you’re adopting a superior attitude by announcing you don’t have a tv, you can reassure them that you do waste many hours of your time posting on internet message boards. Ooooh, true. Then they’ll think I’m a big geek, but if they know me at all, it probably wouldn’t come as a big surprise. **Mr. Blue Sky** , sorry 'bout that, I missed that sentence. And to all of you gamers…I don’t play video games. At all. Sorry! ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2004, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-have-a-tv-deal-with-it/273307/29 "2004-11-06T23:27:55Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > And to all of you gamers…I don’t play video games. At all. Sorry! Freak. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Mirasawa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/77aa72/32.png) [@Mirasawa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mirasawa)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2004, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-have-a-tv-deal-with-it/273307/30 "2004-11-06T23:32:06Z")
I put away my television because I’m a recovering TV-aholic. I was raised by the electronic babysitter, and one day nigh 3 years ago… after another TV session where, after the show ended, I couldn’t remember what I had just watched. (I had simply watched it because it was on.) I wish I could watch good shows without abusing it, but I know I can’t. I feel like a frickin’ heroin ex-junkie, but now I have a better feeling that I’m living my own life. 🙂 Yes, I have been called an anti-TV snob. But that was by a screenwriter, screw him. 😃 I’m pretty nice about it. (Fortunately I can catch some things on DVD and downloading.) > [@OtakuLoki](#): > > Of course others of us know that the people who look down on anime are all blinkered, benighted, psuedo-intellectual, microencephalic borons with racist tendencies. But **that’s** different. \ Totally. A picture can paint a thousand words, so a moving picture does 24 thousand words a second. Combine that with the fact that painting is a more creative art than photography, and then anime is the world’s highest artform. 🙂 \_ \_ ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2004, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-have-a-tv-deal-with-it/273307/31 "2004-11-06T23:36:43Z")
I got TV. Boy oh boy do I ever got TV. I got 18,236 channels of crystal clear digital cable with fourteen HBOs and nine Showtimes and two other things I never heard of. I got Video on Demand, Near Video on Demand, Adult Video on Demand, Sports Video on Demand and Demand Demand on Demand. My cable bill is bigger than the GDP of nineteen separate countries. I get a Christmas card from Ted Turner I got so many channels. And there is nothing. fucking. on. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2004, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-have-a-tv-deal-with-it/273307/32 "2004-11-06T23:38:48Z")
Until a few weeks ago, I hadn’t had a TV for nearly 10 years. I’ve now got myself a plasma display which is awesome with DVDs. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2004, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-have-a-tv-deal-with-it/273307/33 "2004-11-07T01:25:43Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > **Mr. Blue Sky** , sorry 'bout that, I missed that sentence. No problemo. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2004, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-have-a-tv-deal-with-it/273307/34 "2004-11-07T02:17:36Z")
> [@manhattan](#): > > And there is nothing. fucking. on. Which is why I don’t have cable. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![dinahmoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8797f3/32.png) [@dinahmoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dinahmoe)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2004, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-have-a-tv-deal-with-it/273307/35 "2004-11-07T02:31:17Z")
TV is the Box That Shows Baseball. I love it for that. If I could have a NESN only tv, I would buy it. Otherwise, it’s off until April. Unless I’m at the gym. At the gym I am totally “I love the (decade)” 's bitch. Stupid VH1:) ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2004, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-have-a-tv-deal-with-it/273307/36 "2004-11-07T03:10:23Z")
I’m actually surprised at how little TV we watch. Yes, we have TVs–two, in fact. And cable. But outside of weekend sports and DVD movies and late-night reruns of favourite 10-year-old sitcoms, we don’t watch a lot of TV. Both my wife and I are clueless when it comes to the latest reality show craze, the sitcoms that are popular, and the dramas that are current. Heck, I don’t understand a lot of _Mad_ magazine’s TV parodies nowadays because I’ve never seen the shows on which they’re based. We read a lot–we have an enormous home library of books that only gets bigger every time we pass a used bookstore. We listen to the radio or to CDs. If we’re not reading, my wife likes to knit; I like crossword puzzles. We surf the Web, we e-mail friends, we go for a walk, we head for the park, we meet friends out somewhere… …and evey time I call my sister to say hello, it’s a bad time because American Idol/The OC/Trading Spaces/Jeopardy/Survivor/Law and Order/Boston Public/some other TV show is on and could I call back later when it’s over? :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2004, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-have-a-tv-deal-with-it/273307/37 "2004-11-07T03:12:17Z")
> [@dinahmoe](#): > > TV is the Box That Shows Baseball. I love it for that. If I could have a NESN only tv, I would buy it. I do miss my baseball. But I’m a Giants fan in Chicago, so I’d not only have to get cable to see my guys, I’d have to get the expensive doohickey that allows you get Fox Sports Bay Area. Fortunately for me, my friend is an A’s fan and I’m gonna try to get her to get it and then camp out on her couch. I’m sure this plan will work exceedingly well. If it somehow fails (impossible!), well, I have my mlb radio subscription to fall back on. Which is okay, I guess, if you like Jon Miller. ---
**Author:** ![Elza\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Elza\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elza_B)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2004, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-have-a-tv-deal-with-it/273307/38 "2004-11-07T03:28:32Z")
We watch TV. We watch a LOT of TV. Unless we’re listening to NPR on Saturday mornings or listening to music, the tv is usually on. I’m not embarrassed to admit I watch a lot of TV. I watch a lot of good tv and I watch a lot of crap TV. But I also read at least 1 book a day (and good literature, not romance novels), I sew, I quilt, I scrapbook, and I write. I usually do all of those while I watch TV. We watch a lot of documentaries, we watch a lot of movies on DVD, and we watch a lot of our favorite shows on DVD. We leave the TV on at night when we’re falling asleep because neither of us sleeps well with the television off. I also sense some condescension from the “I don’t have a TV” posters (not from the OP, though - I just took hers as “I don’t have a TV, so leave me alone!”) - as if they’re intellectually superior for not watching television. To each his/her own, I guess, but for us, we love TV. And no, our minds are not mush for it - in fact, we’re pretty damn good at Jeopardy and play Trivial Pursuit and Scrabble a lot - we’re really competitive, too. TV is just another part of our very full lives. Ava ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2004, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-have-a-tv-deal-with-it/273307/39 "2004-11-07T18:31:26Z")
> [@manhattan](#): > > And there is nothing. fucking. on. That’s a big reason I got rid of digital cable and all of the pay channels. I still think there is _something_ on, just not much. And LOL, btw. 🙂 > [@Spoons](#): > > …and evey time I call my sister to say hello, it’s a bad time because American Idol/The OC/Trading Spaces/Jeopardy/Survivor/Law and Order/Boston Public/some other TV show is on and could I call back later when it’s over? :rolleyes: Now _that_ is completely ridiculous. But my mom might have your sister beat: the Bravo channel shows _West Wing_ reruns M-Th at 7pm (and all of Monday night). Mom will be annoyed if I call her during one of these airings. Of a rerun. Of a show that she’s seen every episode of. And owns all of the DVDs of. I’ll get annoyed right back at her, and then she’ll realize what she’s doing and we can proceed with the conversation, but her initial reaction is always annoyance. :rolleyes: , indeed. I also don’t understand people who won’t make plans for a night when one of their favorite shows is on (and I’ve known a few). The day that watching TV becomes more important to me than spending time in the real world with other people, take my sets away! All 3 of them! Plus my VCRs and DVD player! ---
**Author:** ![umop\_ap\_sdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/dbc845/32.png) [@umop\_ap\_sdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/umop_ap_sdn)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2004, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-have-a-tv-deal-with-it/273307/40 "2004-11-07T19:03:58Z")
> [@Misnomer](#): > > I also don’t understand people who won’t make plans for a night when one of their favorite shows is on (and I’ve known a few). Because it’s more convenient than waiting to catch it in the reruns. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-have-a-tv-deal-with-it/273307.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-have-a-tv-deal-with-it/273307.md?page=3)