Know TV, No Life ... No TV, Know Life

In My Humble Opinion
1

Have you ever intentionally done without television?

Ever go for more than a year without television?

How long have you been able to go without broadcast, cable, satellite, DVD, VHS, Beta, laser disc or any sort of video television in your home? This means having your tube unplugged for the entire time. We’re talking zippo, nada, zilch, bupkus, nil and zero TV in the house for the total duration.

Sounds like He!! to you?

[Krusty]

The living would envy the dead!

[/Krusty]
Not to me! I’ve done it before and I’ll do it again. FOR A THIRD TIME! It was back in 1996 that I turned my television off for one entire year. What a surprise to have read 20,000 - 40,000 pages in all of twelve months. Turning the tube back on to see the 49er’s lose a playoff (even though I abhor organized sports) was traumatic enough. You cannot imagine how glad I was to leave my television off this time around. What did I miss?

  1. 9-11 Coverage

  2. A Shuttle disaster within days of (if not, like last time, on my exact) birthday.

And everything in between. I managed to miss the entire OJ trial when I left it off the first time. Try to imagine how insufferably glad that made me. Everything I’ve missed since August 2001 - Until Now just rips my heart out. You have got to know what it meant to give up: The Simpsons, Masterpiece Theater and Frontline. If not, I pity you.

So, have you ever left the boob-tube off entirely?

How long did you do so and for what reason?

Mine’s been off for almost ONE and a HALF YEARS … How about you?

2

I tend to play more music when I don’t have a TV. I do without it while camping or traveling. I did not have a TV right after college, in my first apartment. I didn’t miss it. But I like the news. My favorite TV news station is BBC World News.

3

I would be about 70 bucks a month richer without TV. Still, I enjoy some of the mindless crap too much. I would miss West Wing, CSPAN, March Madness, Inside The Actors Studio, etc.

4

You can have my remote when you pry it from my cold, dead hand.

5

I watch my TV about once or twice a month. I didn’t even own one for about 6 months. The only reason I bought one again was the extended version LOTR.

I think not having a TV at all wouldn’t bother me much. Usually, the times I end up watching are when I can’t sleep or don’t feel well.

6

I don’t watch TV during the day, even when I have plenty of opportunity to, such as illness or unemployment. I once worked as a freelance writer for two years, and watched little or no daytime TV. I do enjoy TV in the evenings. It’s not a moral thing with me, I just find TV in the daytime kinda dull compared to actually doing things. When I feel like kicking back in the evening, it’s pleasant to have something to watch. Even then I have my computer on so I can browse the Web or write if I want to, or I’m chillin’ with the family. TV by itself just isn’t that interesting.

7

I hate television. Seriously. The sound, the light, it just absolutely makes me crazy. I cannot have a TV on in any room I am in. TVs in public places like waiting rooms don’t usually bother me, but at home, no TV, ever. I own one TV which I use to watch movies and play videogames, nothing else. I get all my news from newspapers and internet sources.

This has caused considerable problems since my fiance moved in. He is an inveterate TV watcher, and whenever he wants to watch, I have to leave the room. I think my aversion stems from my mother- she was one of those people who just had to have a TV on at every moment, regardless of whether she was watching it or not. Even if she was in another part of the house, the TV had to be on somewhere. She slept with the TV on; she claimed to be unable to concentrate if it was turned off; I frequentlyI especially caught her bringing a portable televison out of the bathroom! It was insane. I find television to be loud and offensive. It’s constant, raucous, nonsensical noise. I know so many people who use TV to, as they claim “relax”- they tell me they work hard all day, they’re tired, they just want to come home and zone out in front of something which offers the most vapid and passive of entertainments, requiring no mental exercise whatsoever. This whole sentiment scares the living hell out of me. Even at my worst moments, I have never wanted to switch off my brain and stare, slack-jawed and goggle-eyed in dumb animal wonder at something so devoid of any value. I know people who will watch literally anything just so they have something to stare at instead of, god forbid, thinking.

Now, obviously, not every TV-watcher is like this, but the television and I have a long history of mutual animosity, so forgive me if I seem a little over-zealous about the whole thing. I refuse to bow before the one-eyed god. I especially despise “shows”- soap operas, sitcoms, talk shows, dramas, the kind of stuff usually referred to as “primetime television”. shudder There are a few TV shows I enjoy, but I’ve heard about them from friends and actually taped them to watch later, or simply bought them on tape or DVD just so I wouldn’t have to watch any actual timed programming. I hear even news channels have gone commercial, which terrifies me, considering CNN used to pretty reliable at one point.

The respect some people give to TV and the extent to which they allow it to control their lives repulses me. I absolutely freak out when people tell me “Well, I can’t do X at 8 pm, because some show is on.”

And I positively seethe with rage when some idiot starts describing to me some incredibly cool/hilarious/bizarre thing he saw on TV. Look, I don’t care. I don’t want to hear about. If I wanted to watch TV, I would. I don’t. So shut up. I can’t even be polite about it anymore. I’m starting to think I have a problem.

8

Um, 11 years now. I’m 29, so I have never had television as an adult. It’s no big deal; it’s just something we don’t do (and can’t; deliberately have no antenna). For the really good TV shows, we buy season compilations (Sex & The City, 24 - Season One, The Simpsons - Seasons 1 & 2).

9

I didn’t have a TV for the whole time I lived in England (seven years). I found other ways to procrastinate.

Now the main purpose of having a TV is so I can have a cable modem. Our local cable monopoly wouldn’t let me have it without the other. Well, that and C-SPAN, the occasional CNN in the morning when I’m not coherent, and my one vice, “Unsolved Mysteries.” But only when I’m doing something else, like eating.

10

Do without old movies on TCM? Do without documentaries on PBS and the less-sucky cable stations? Do without The Daily Show and The Simpsons and Antiques Roadshow?

Why the hell would I want to do that?

11

Have you ever intentionally gone without reading for any period of time? I mean, why bother?

I don’t hate media, I hate individual programs. I hate crappy romance novels and I hate Friends. I hate the Daily Telegraph and I hate A Current Affair.

I like High Fidelity and I like the Simpsons. I like the Sydney Morning Herald and I like Media Watch.

Why cut myself off from something that provides me with valuable entertainment and information? I don’t quit reading books because of John Grisham and Stephen King.

12

We are in a sort of forced-deprivation right now; we just moved and decided that our reward for unpacking would be to get cable/satellite installed.

So far, we’ve gone through our entire VHS tape collection and are digging into our DVDs. I’m downloading shows I like from the internet.

I know if the TV had cable/satellite right now, we would have it on and would be watching something and getting nothing done.

13

Oh, yes, not watching TV is a real source of self-esteem. . . what an achievement! I am getting this picture of David Cross on Mr. Show in the “Velveteen Touch of a Dandy Fop” episode from Season 2:

14

When I moved into my house a few years ago I never got around to cable. Still haven’t. I still watch a little TV, but really I use it like people use the radio. It’s just sort of there.

I don’t leave it on all the time, but normally when I’m using the computer I’ll have it on so I don’t get totally engrossed in what I’m doing there. Ya gotta know when to go to bed!

15

No, I have never set out to not watch television for a period of time.

I enjoy it. And, somehow I still manage to read well over 40,000 pages in a year. Heck, most years I probably double that number.

I must ask…why did you turn off your TV for so long if the stuff you have missed “rips your heart out”? I understand not watching TV because you don’t enjoy it. I don’t understand depriving yourself of something you do enjoy with out a good reason.

16

One thing that has worked very well for us is moving the TV out of the living roomand into the spare bedroom: we put the couch in there, too, and it’s a cozy little den, but out of the way enough that watching TV is something that we have to go just a bit out of outr way to do, and that makes watching TV one choice amoung many, not a default position.

17

Bah! Mine is right in front of my bed, right next to my stereo system ( which it is connected to ).

Wake up, fumble blearily for the remote, watch inane crap until fully awake - It the very cycle of life :stuck_out_tongue: !!!

Okay, sometimes I flip to the tuner and listen to the radio instead - but, really - what would you rather start the day with? NPR or Boy Meets World reruns?

Erm…alright, maybe a bad example there :D.

  • Tamerlane
18

While I was in college, I did without TV for a while when my landlord decided I should pay for my own cable rather than use his (it was a house recently divided into apartments and he didn’t reroute the cable lines right away) I didn’t miss it much.

Just recently, I downgraded from a digital cable package (we subscribed for my husband’s benefit) to extended basic cable and HBO. I mostly watch HGTV, Comedy Central, and TLC, but rarely more than an hour or 2 a day. It’s not that big a part of my life, so if it disappeared, I would adjust. My spouse, otoh, would be a twitching disaster within hours. :eek:

But don’t dare suggest that I get rid of my cable internet connection!!

19

I didn’t have a TV for the eleven months I lived abroad.

I haven’t had a TV for the last ten months. I can watch DVDs on the computer, though, so I can watch movies and my Buffy, Angel, and Simpsons DVDs when I want to.

Not having a TV does not make me a better person.

20

I missed most of OJ trial coverage because I didn’t want to watch it, so I just didn’t.

I’ve never deliberately gone without TV, and probably never will. I currently have a TV, a VCR, HBO so I can watch “Six Feet Under,” and a newly purchased DVD player, along with a Netflix subscription. When the TV’s on, it’s usually on a movie channel. It’s not on constantly; if there’s nothing on I want to watch, I turn it off, with the exception of Sunday afternoon nap time, when I try to find something mind-numbing.