# Who else doesn't have a TV?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-doesnt-have-a-tv/507172
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [August 21, 2009, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-doesnt-have-a-tv/507172 "2009-08-21T05:02:49Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Hedda\_Rosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hedda_Rosa)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2009, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-doesnt-have-a-tv/507172/1 "2009-08-21T05:02:49Z")
We killed our TV last December 22 (Merry Christmas, kids!).
We are the only family I know who don’t own a TV.
People are funny, you know? When I tell them our family doesn’t have a TV, either they think we are some kind of hippy-weirdos who feed our children nothing but bulgar and sprouts. Or they look at me full of awe and amazement and act as if I’ve won the Mommy-wars.
Both are further from the truth. Just, cable TV sucks and was making our kids into bratty, demanding, and rude little monsters (Well, more than they naturally are). For the record, we are not anti-media, we just watch DVDs on the laptops or desktop/monitor instead of using a television.
Our lives are better without commercial television and especially advertising, though I admit on rainy Saturdays I miss TV like I miss smoking.
Anyway all this leading up to a survey: anyone else out there opted out of TV? And why? And do you think you’ll ever get one again?
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### Author:  [@Silvorange](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silvorange)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2009, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-doesnt-have-a-tv/507172/2 "2009-08-21T05:20:47Z")
We do have a TV, but only for playing DVDs (or the occasional VHS tape) and games.
We didn’t give it up intentionally. We just always had crappy reception in the apartment where we currently live, and there wasn’t anything on that made paying for cable worthwhile. We rent or buy full seasons of shows we like.
Commercials bother me now that I’m not used to them. I see plenty of advertising, of course, but I can ignore it. The idea of someone interrupting what I’m doing to tell me to buy something seems pretty crazy now.
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### Author:  [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2009, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-doesnt-have-a-tv/507172/3 "2009-08-21T05:25:35Z")
> [@Hedda Rosa](#):
>
> People are funny, you know? When I tell them our family doesn’t have a TV, either they think we are some kind of hippy-weirdos who feed our children nothing but bulgar and sprouts. Or they look at me full of awe and amazement and act as if I’ve won the Mommy-wars.
I don’t have one and I get that reaction too: a mixture of shock/horror and admiration.
My former one gave up the ghost in 2004. I had never really watched much television anyway and for various reasons (exams, work pressures, overseas travel) it was about three months before I got around to thinking about replacing it. By then I realised that I didn’t miss it very much. I haven’t had one since.
I may get another, but it’s not high on my agenda. There’s really not a lot that I want to watch. Basically I find other pursuits (reading, listening to music etc) more enjoyable.
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### Author:  [@G.Pie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G.Pie)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2009, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-doesnt-have-a-tv/507172/4 "2009-08-21T05:28:22Z")
I haven’t had a TV for years. In part because cable doesn’t seem worth the money but, more importantly, I found myself flopping down on the couch too often and wasting a whole evening. I waste a lot of time on the internet, it’s true, but the payoff seems higher.
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### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2009, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-doesnt-have-a-tv/507172/5 "2009-08-21T05:38:49Z")
I’ve got several, but no cable/satellite. There’s just no point when anything I’d want to watch is available online.
Since I usually explain that last part, all I usually get is people asking me how to watch TV online.
As for the time wasting part: that’s the point for me. I’m disabled (in the legal sense), can’t have a job, and a lot of times, I need something to pass the time and distract me from my problem. I’ve actually considered turning the cable back on, as, when I’m having a flare up, the mental effort to pick a show to watch can become almost too much.
Sorry to be such a downer! I do agree that other pursuits are more rewarding. It’s just that mental effort thing.
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### Author:  [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2009, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-doesnt-have-a-tv/507172/6 "2009-08-21T06:05:59Z")
I don’t have one, but you’d never know it by the amount of TV I watch on hulu or via other, more, um…illegal…methods. Well, actually you might, because I can only watch TV _intentionally_, you know? I can’t channel surf. So I actually do miss out on a lot of things that I might otherwise stumble upon accidentally, and I never have any idea what people are talking about in the “ads I hate” threads.
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### Author:  [@gladtobeblazed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gladtobeblazed)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2009, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-doesnt-have-a-tv/507172/7 "2009-08-21T06:52:05Z")
> [@Kyla](#):
>
> I don’t have one, but you’d never know it by the amount of TV I watch on hulu or via other, more, um…illegal…methods.
Same here. I work mostly from home, sitting in front of my computer. I have two monitors and one of them plays videos pretty much all day long. So I don’t really need a tv.
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### Author:  [@Kalypso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalypso)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2009, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-doesnt-have-a-tv/507172/8 "2009-08-21T07:25:06Z")
I have one, but it’s just for the wii. There used to be a DVD player hooked up to it, but it broke about 6 months ago.
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### Author:  [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2009, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-doesnt-have-a-tv/507172/9 "2009-08-21T07:51:17Z")
I keep mine on for company, but I’m lucky in Chicago we have a station called “ME-TV” (WWME-CA) with great old reruns. But outside of that station and reruns of the Simpsons and Seinfield I don’t watch much TV.
But I am very lucky to live in Chicago which has great public libraries and huge DVD and old VHS collections
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### Author:  [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2009, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-doesnt-have-a-tv/507172/10 "2009-08-21T08:01:15Z")
I have satellite TV but don’t watch it an hour a month, if even that. And when I do watch it, I usually watch crime shows like _The First 48_ or _Forensic Files_, but they get repetitive and monotonous after a while. I enjoyed watching Gene Simmons’ show last year but just haven’t been able to get into it this year.
So anyway, yeah I have a TV but very rarely watch it, so I guess you could say I’ve opted out for the most part.
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### Author:  [@NineToTheSky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NineToTheSky)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2009, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-doesnt-have-a-tv/507172/11 "2009-08-21T09:01:50Z")
I do have a TV, and I do watch it. But I get equal pleasure from the radio. We have Radio 4 here in the UK, which is a speech station. I prefer \*listening \*to news programs. They broadcast plays every day, some of which are wonderful. It’s more akin to reading than watching TV or film; the pictures in your head are invariably brighter and more evocative than those given to you. Comedy on radio can be superb; there are legendary programs that have been broadcast continually for forty years, such as Just A Minute and I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue.
I could do happily without TV, just as long as I had radio, and in particular, Radio 4. Is there an equivalent in the States?
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### Author:  [@kiz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiz)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2009, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-doesnt-have-a-tv/507172/12 "2009-08-21T09:28:31Z")
We had to cut back to basic cable, which sucks because the only shows I watch are on Com-fucking-cast’s “premium” stations (Bravo, BBCA, etc.) That said…we have 2 TVs, and now maybe we’ll watch the occasional Discovery show at night, but otherwise it’s turned off.
It’s very strange. I’ve always used the TV more for the noise factor, but now that there’s hardly anything worth listening to…
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### Author:  [@Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crowbar_of_Irony_3)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2009, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-doesnt-have-a-tv/507172/13 "2009-08-21T10:11:27Z")
I lived in a rented apartment room, and I haven’t bother getting a TV. I still get my fix of passive viewing entertainment from YouTube and by renting/buying DVDs. I am using a LCD TV though, so yeah, it is a television, but I don’t watch any channels.
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### Author:  [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2009, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-doesnt-have-a-tv/507172/14 "2009-08-21T11:58:28Z")
I knew you were going to say you watch movies on you computer monitor. Saying you don’t have a TV doesn’t mean you go without like it did a few decades ago. I have a television that hardly ever is used. I would have a use for it if it could be a computer monitor.
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### Author:  [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2009, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-doesnt-have-a-tv/507172/15 "2009-08-21T14:29:10Z")
There is one in my flat (in which I’m not currently living). My housesitter uses it as the monitor for the XBox; it’s also good for getting Mom off my back when she’s visiting.
There isn’t one in my old Scotland flat (where I’m right now). There wasn’t one in my Philadelphia flat, my Miami flat, or my Castellón flat. There was one in my Costa Rica flat because it came with the furnishings. There’s going to be one in my dorm because it comes with the furnishings.
I’ve had friends come visit… look around… keep on looking… and when I say “what are you looking for?”
“The TV?”
“No TV”
“Oh, man, we’ll have to get you a TV!”
“What for?”
“… now that you mention it, nothing really…”
That doesn’t mean I don’t spend time in front of a screen, it just happens to be the one on my computer.
I grew up being unable to watch about anything (my parents were very strict, so most of the “over our age” stuff my classmates watched in 6th grade was off limits for me); then in college I was part of the minority who always lost the vote count. So I just never got as used to having The Box on as other people.
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### Author:  [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2009, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-doesnt-have-a-tv/507172/16 "2009-08-21T15:22:35Z")
We killed our Dish Network subscription last Christmas also. We’d been thinking about it, and then the box went dead and they wanted $50 just to send out a tech. That was the end of that.
It was a little abrupt, but I’ve come to not miss it very much. We started buying season DVD sets of our favorite shows, and we have lots of movies. I went to a friend’s house to watch the inauguration (and I probably could have watched it at home online). I get news (text and video) online.
Other than waiting out the end of _Monk_, there’s really nothing new on that interests us.
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### Author:  [@Jettboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jettboy)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2009, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-doesnt-have-a-tv/507172/17 "2009-08-21T16:04:07Z")
I’d love to blow up our hypno-box, but my wife would never accept it.
I was raised dirt poor; most of my childhood we didn’t have a television, and my brother and I entertained ourselves by reading books, listening to music (we always had a record player), and playing outside. My lovely missus is a die-hard, complete TV slave, however…a vidiot.
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### Author:  [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2009, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-doesnt-have-a-tv/507172/18 "2009-08-21T16:22:31Z")
> [@Kyla](#):
>
> I don’t have one, but you’d never know it by the amount of TV I watch on hulu or via other, more, um…illegal…methods. Well, actually you might, because I can only watch TV _intentionally_, you know? I can’t channel surf. So I actually do miss out on a lot of things that I might otherwise stumble upon accidentally, and I never have any idea what people are talking about in the “ads I hate” threads.
Same goes for me. I probably watch more television shows than anyone I know, but I never ever see ads.
One thing that’s cool, if I actually NEED television (like during the elections or when Cleveland was in the NBA playoffs), my friend has a Slingbox and I can “dial in” to his cable box and have his cable on my computer. I’ll admit that I “channel surf” during those times…I definitely miss being able to do that.
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### Author:  [@Telperien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperien)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2009, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-doesnt-have-a-tv/507172/19 "2009-08-21T16:47:54Z")
I have a tv, but I don’t watch it. It isn’t even plugged in right now. I dropped the cable when I realized that I only watched a few hours of tv a week. I dropped Netflix both to cut costs and because I realized I wasn’t feeling much like watching DVDs either. I don’t watch tv online because I don’t like how it looks on my computer, and I’m not that interested in tv anyway. So I do have a tv, but I do not watch any tv in any form.
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### Author:  [@phreesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phreesh)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2009, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-doesnt-have-a-tv/507172/20 "2009-08-21T16:50:29Z")
I have a TV that I watch and I respect everybody’s decision to not watch, but I am a bit tired of the, “There’s nothing good on,” argument. That’s _almost_ like saying that you don’t read because there’s no good books (I understand that this is a stretch, but I don’t think it’s too much of one).
In today’s 1000 channel universe, there’s always something good on. If you like butterflies, there’s a show for you. If you like antiques, there’s a show for you. If you like weather or cooking, there’s a whole NETWORK for you. There’s also AMAZING stuff on like The Tudors, 30 Rock, the Amazing Race, and Mad Men. I will also note that several of you speak of watching DVDs of television shows, so there must be somthing decent on.
Of course, these all cost money, so if you don’t get the quality you want at the price you’re willing to pay, I wouldn’t watch either. Plus, there’s a lot of good points about how you can watch commercial-free DVDs of shows you like, plus you can see a ton of TV for free on the net these days.
I do both these things and actually probably don’t watch more than an hour of ‘normal’ TV a day (except during football season).
At any rate, I just wanted to defend TV a bit, as its not the barren landscape that some of you portray. Again, I TOTALLY respect your decision, but it’s just not mine.
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