Comments on: Nine months NOT watching TV

By: zarait

zarait — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 14:57:06 +0000

Life means living every second until you are dead. Time is always there so it does not matter you watch TV or not. The way you spend time matters. I try to spend my way in a challenging way that is to do more productive work in limited time frame. So I get still enough time for my TV, cinema, Internet, friends, family and my favourite job “showering”.

By: mandarine

mandarine — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 20:18:10 +0000

You should decide right on now what you are going to spend the money saved [a bicycle?]. Once the [bicycle] is bought, you cannot be tempted to buy the TV anymore: the money is spent.

By: polaris

polaris — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 08:40:30 +0000

My roommate has a TV and I watch some PBS shows. I would love watching tennis all the time, but ESPN likes to show people in dark glasses playing poker, or people trying to beat each other at wolfing down hot dogs. This, I find unbearable to watch. I will graduate and move soon, and am seriously contemplating not buying a TV.

It is going to take a lot of self-control.

By: mandarine

mandarine — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 15:43:49 +0000

When I am too tired to read, I go to bed. Life is so much simpler without a TV.

By: Becky

Becky — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 14:37:57 +0000

I wish I could get rid of our TV. Like healingmagichands, when I first moved in with my husband there was no TV. Then his aunt bought him one for some football event, and then we had to have the baseball package so he could watch every available game. The TV is big and ugly and sits on an equally big and ugly piece of furniture. I have successfully fought off TIVO (what is there to record?!) and a second TV, though.
Shamefully, because the drattted thing is there, I do watch it, but pretty much only when I am too tired to read. It’s a habit I feel I should break and in fact I think reading this post has given me extra determination!

By: mandarine

mandarine — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 05:14:18 +0000

Lorelle: thanks for this testimony. In my post, I forgot to mention that I actually grew up without a TV in the house, until I was 15 or so. And then the rule was ‘no French programs on schooldays’, which apparently bore its fruits.

Healingmagichands: couldn’t you have him play football instead of watch football? What could he lose in the bargain? He could count on your healing magic hands after the games

By: healingmagichands

healingmagichands — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 01:07:53 +0000

I would be happy to get rid of our TV. Unfortunately, it would probably mean getting rid of my husband as well. When we were first living together, there was no TV in the place, and I did not miss it one bit. After a few months, he apologetically purchased one, because he absolutely HAS to watch football. This necessity is now costing us quite a bit of money, because not only do we have to have the TV, we also have to have satellite service so he can get the NFL Sunday Ticket, a special program that costs extra above and beyond the basic satellite. The good thing about satellite is that we also have the DVR, or TIVO as it is called, which you can have watch TV for you. Then when you want to watch a program, you no longer have to watch commercials at all, but just zip right through them. They are coming out with a TIVO smart enough to not even record the commercials soon! However, that being said, I don’t watch a whole lot of TV even now. I have too many books to read, and too many blogs to comment on, I just can’t waste time watching drivel. There are a couple of shows every week that I like, and I still enjoy watching Jeopardy. The danger in that is that I think I probably need to try out for that show. I think I could add a substantial amount to my retirement fund if I did. Of course, I don’t have to deal with a signalling device in pitting my wits against the Jeopardy contenstants I am watching.

By: Lorelle

Lorelle — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 22:32:05 +0000

Hmm, we haven’t had a television for…14 or 15 years, except for the five years in the Middle East. Still, until the last two or three years, there were only a few channels to choose from and few things in English that were of an interest. I ended up watching Oprah a few times a week, though a year or two behind the US shows, just to hear English and find out what was going on in the US. My news came from the BBC and non-US influenced sources via shortwave radio and a bit of television, as well as the Internet.

Returning to the states to the Gulf Coast, from April through November we had the Weather Channel on almost 24 hours a day watching hurricanes come directly at us. I escaped occasionally to the SCIFI channel. Now that we’ve moved to Oregon, we’re back to no television.

I do download shows from the web and recently signed up for Netflix as it is an hour drive to civilization and an old movie theatre showing old flicks, just so I could play catch up with what the US is watching and what I missed. I’m learning there is no way for me to catch up on 15 years of no television and movies.

I rarely ever play games on the computer…and all of this got me thinking. See, I love my work. I love what I do and the freedom it gives me. I spent the morning checking for blog comments and returning a few emails in the early hours and then two hours working out in the garden and feeding the animals. Then inside to work for 10 hours or more, enjoying the majority of what I’m doing all the time.

The computer and the Internet has given me a sense of freedom. I stay informed without a television and only listen to the radio in the car. I have no need for the games and distractions that television brings. If I want to totally turn off my head, I go for a walk or read a book. I don’t open my mind and let crap flood in, and trust me, the little I’ve seen television since my return to the states - there is a LOT of crap on television.

In the past 15 mostly televisionless years, I’ve found that I can form an opinion and make a reference without the influence of popular culture and media. Thanks for reminding me of what I’ve gained, not lost!

By: mandarine

mandarine — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 19:13:48 +0000

I do not know many people who deliberately got rid of their TV. Congratulations! The best parts are the extra sleeping time, the extra reading time and the extra cuddling time.

DVDs are an entirely different thing (unless you record dumb shows with embedded commercials and scary news on DVD).

By: Smithereens

Smithereens — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 15:13:09 +0000

We gave back our TV connection to the dealer on March 31. Woow, already 2 months without TV! I can’t say I miss it (we have DVDs though) but it gives me a good reason to celebrate tonight…