I haven’t ever watched TV obsessively, just the odd programme here and there or for an hour in the evening to relax before bed. However now I actually avoid watching it. There is only one programme I want to see and about from that nothing interests me. I sit down and immediately have no concentration to follow something for more than 10minutes. Even programmes I used to love a month ago I have no interest in now. I’d rather read or draw.
Whats wrong with me?! Is this a recognised symptom of ageing?!
Don’t worry, I think reading and drawing are better uses of time than watching TV anyway. I’ve had pretty much the same thing happen and I have a couple of alternate theories:
One is that television was more fun when shows were “events”- that is, you had to plan to commit a certain time each week when your show was airing. Now with recorders it’s like “I’ll get around to it”. Sort of the same with movies; you don’t have to literally “catch” a movie anymore, it’ll always be around on DVD or something.
The other is that people have a compulsion to stare at a flickering light source that was once satisfied by open fires, then by TV, and now by your monitor when you browse the Internet.
If I didn’t crochet while I watched television, I probably wouldn’t watch it much. It keeps me from going nuts during the long commercial breaks and keeps me occupied until the interesting bits come on.
I went for 7 years without a television and didn’t mind it at all. I listened to a lot of NPR on the radio and actually learned things and heard some interesting and/or amusing stories. TikkiDad gave me the telly I have now the Christmas after 9/11. If it were to give up the ghost, I could easily get back into the radio habit again and probably be the better for it. Lo, the lure of television is a little too strong while I have one that works. Sigh.
I went through this when I was about 30. I used to watch the occasional movie or sitcom re-run, not more than 5-10 hours a week at most. Then I almost completely lost interest in television. The few shows I had watched, I just didn’t feel like watching them. It came to a head as I was writing out a check to Comcast one day, and realized I hadn’t watched anything since before the last time I wrote them a check. So I called them up and said “come get your box, remote, and all your other crap, I’m cancelling my service”. Spent the next 5 years with no television whatsoever and didn’t miss it a bit.
Read a book or a newspaper, listen to music, play video, board, or card games, call or visit someone you don’t normally spend that much time with, sit outside and watch/listen to nature, start a new hobby. These are all things I did to occupy myself instead of the idiot box.
Television makes you stupid.
You’re better off without it.
I never just SIT in front of the television and stare at it. I must have my hands busy knitting or engaging in some second-favorite hobby.
I don’t think this is a sign of aging so much as it is a sign of gaining taste. TV is crap. Even though there are shows I enjoy watching when they’re on (I like House) I would NEVER bother to make a point to see them. It’s never like, “Oh, House is on at 7:00 tonight, I’ll make sure I’m home and have it on.”
You’re probably just feeling exactly what the truth of the matter is: if you “miss” something on television, you’re not really “missing” anything. And you have more entertaining, engaging ways to spend your time. If you miss drawing time, you might really be missing out on something good. I suppose that might come with age, but I don’t think it’s some bad thing that means you’re getting OLD.
I watch a lot of TV. Just not on TV while it’s being broadcast. I acquire them by other means, which gets me no ad interruptions, viewing times that suit me, and no chance of missing an episode. It also means I see them before they reach my local shores (which they don’t often do at all - neither Pushing Daisies or Chuck have played here, for example), though if they do play here within a few days of the US broadcast I will choose to watch them on regular TV for the sake of token loyalty. I’m watching Lie To Me locally, for instance.
Television broadcast has changed. They don’t seem to care about engendering a loyal audience, they just want to find that magic timeslot that will get the ratings. It’s madness.
I’m not sure how relevant this is to the OP, but one major difference I’ve noticed between now and when I was young (I’m old) is that there weren’t many channels and they only broadcast for a limited amount of time, so many programmes were events. You made a commitment to watch them. Nowadays, TV is used as wallpaper. It’s not unusual to have it on all the time and to pay very little attention to it.
One aspect of it is that, of necessity, you have to sit through a lot of dross to find the pearls. With so many other distractions available - the internet primarily - people aren’t prepared to make that commitment. The lack of ‘greatness’ isn’t exclusive to TV, though. In all the arts - theatre, music, books et al - gems appear only occasionally.
More than 10 years ago Lady Chance and I realized we’d done ‘Turn off your TV’ week without noticing it was going on. So we killed paying for cable and moved on with our lives.
Sadly, we have to have basic cable in our new place as the only way to get the ultra-highspeed cable Internet includes the basic service. But we don’t use it much. I decided to watch the last quarter of the Superbowl (the first time I’d watched sports in years) and had to sit down and figure out the remote and how to change challenges and, indeed, which channels were the major networks. I had no idea.
The simple fact is that, for an adult with things going on, watching television is an enormous waste of time. There will always be something more important/useful/educational/informational that you could be doing with your time. You could be learning, or creating, or working, or interacting with others and all of those things will better your life in some way.
Watching television? The only thing you’re bettering is the balance sheets of the networks you’re watching and allowing yourself to be programmed by advertising.
I’ve lost interest in television, both the medium and what’s on it. The TV I do watch now is almost exclusively on DVD (when I want to watch it, with no ads and in portions of several episodes at a time usually). There’s only one show I’m watching on TV at the moment and that’s Battlestar Galactica, once it’s finished then it’ll be back to no TV.
If I had a service like Tivo or Sky+ maybe I’d record more stuff and watch it when I wanted to, but probably not because I just don’t care enough about what’s on. I’d far rather do stuff online, read a book, listen to radio online (again, when I want to!) and generally do stuff that engages my brain rather than passively grazing images off the idiot box.
I wouldn’t worry Hippos, I don’t think you’re alone in this. If you really want to keep engaging with TV programming then do like the rest of us - sign up to lovefilm.com (or another DVD rental service) and watch stuff on box sets.
I cut off cable television a few years ago. At the time, I just couldn’t afford it.
I travel a lot for my job. So I have a lot of boring nights in hotels where there’s not much else to do but watch television. Honestly, television is pretty bad. Once you’ve been away from it a year or two you see how bad most of it is. Bad as in, "this show is stupid and cliché. And there’s like four clones of it on the air now.
You’re not missing much.
Other than The Office, I’d say burn the whole damn medium. Nature shows on the Discovery Channel can still be pretty interesting. As can Food Network (I’m a gastronome). Everything else is mostly shit.
Walk away from television. It’s good for you. The old saw “It’ll rot your brani!” has come true.
I gave up on several network shows (Lost, Desperate Housewives, Heroes) and I watch more cable network shows now (Burn Notice, The Closer.) Except for Big Bang Theory, I don’t have any more Must See TV shows on the big three networks, now that the rat bastards at ABC finally shoveled dirt on the coffin that is Pushing Daisies.
That said, my family enjoys the movies available on cable, I like the investigative and medical mystery shows on Discovery Channel and such, and last night, we watched three Food Network Challenges involving chocolate.
I don’t agree that TV will rot your brain. That may have been the case when there were only three channels available via rabbit ears, but with cable coming up with such shows as Mad Men (which I don’t watch, but I acknowledge is stellar television) with the instructional shows on HGTV and Food Network, and the 24-hour news channels, there’s a lot of valuable entertainment and information you can get.
This is me, too. The internet and a good monitor have retired my boob tube. Haven’t turned it on in months. I only have service because I can’t get internet from Comcast without buying TV too. Since they force me to buy it this way, I feel less guilty for sidestepping their chosen form of delivery (ie w/ ads).
ETA: And I keep my receiver stuck on CSPAN just to mess with their demographics.
I guess a lot of soaps and dramas are actually geared for younger, teen, audiences so it could well be a sign of growing up. Or maybe it’s just a sign of how crap tv is these days!
That’s how I feel too. Doesn’t anyone watch PBS anymore?
I think that many of us have moved from wasting time on TV to wasting time on the Internet, but goodness knows there is just as much stupid crap on the internet as there is on the worst TV channel.
I myself prefer to spend most of my idle time on the computer or playing video games (except for “The Office” and “30 Rock”, some of the few shows I make a point of watching), but I think television can be worthwhile.
I have had some ill/disabled relatives who really relied on it as a diversion.
I completely agree with this. Recently there have been programmes on that I used to like and so have recorded them to watch at a later date, though in reality I probably won’t get around to watching them properly. If I do it will be while I’m sorting out the washing or on the net at the same time.
Yes that is true. I’m now 24 and so I think fall into the gap where I’m too old for teen soaps and reality shows but too young for the kind of stuff my parents watch.
TV just isn’t stimulating enough anymore. I like to read because I want to escape my world and go into someone else’s thoughts, and drawing is creative, magical and addictive.
Generally now I find it very hard to sit down and relax. I want to be moving around all the time because I feel tetchy and pent up so doing anything that is active suits me a lot better.
Many programs lead their time slot by being the Least Objectionable Program. Lots of us would rather watch the least bad thing than turn off the box. Try this:
Look at the schedule ahead of time, and mark things you actually want to see, not just the LOP.
When your selected show is over, turn off the TV.
Find other things to do. Read, do crossword puzzles, take a walk, drive 300 nails, or post on a message board.
If the television doesn’t give you something you really want, don’t give it access to your brain. It’s your brain, don’t let it come down to inertia.
Find Frank Zappa’s I Am The Slime, and listen to it.
