Television... who's sick of it? Anyone?

[Widebrim]

I don't watch sitcoms, reality shows, award shows, NBC?
heaven for bid :eusa_doh:

I didn't know that Heaven was up for sale. Sorry, Hondo, but couldn't resist it.

 

[Carlisle Blues]

I recently spent 10 days in a motel room with a TV set.

Now now.....it this thread turning into True Confessions....

 

[Carlisle Blues]

Well, along with monitoring, educating is also important. I was educated regarding firearms at a young age and so was my younger brother.

....and I hold awards in marksmanship. That is not the point. This trend of gratuitous violence started at the infancy stage of television when men were men and women were men as well.

 

[Foofoogal]

Carlisle. You are to be commended for monitoring what your son watches.
http://www.parentstv.org/
http://www.internetsafety.com/

My point is you can hardly do that anymore with prime time and sex. Our granddaughters are young and the innuendoes are horrible of sex constantly. Like I said even commercials selling frozen foods are like cheap porn.
Cannot find a thing to watch with them.
I come from a huge family so we have sex down pat. Normal as drinking to us but come on. It has gotten way out of hand.
I am not talking about cable either. I am talking about main channels.
The OP asked is anyone sick of it and I am. I do not like violence or scary (will not watch horror) shows either. Life is scary enough and usually read magazines or books or mend stuff thru the shows like that as honey likes them.

 

[Carlisle Blues]

^^
Thank you...

There are times where it feels like a losing battle. However, even at his young age of three he is very impressionable. That is where being in today's world is a benefit. I have the opportunity at least block channels I do not want him to watch.

 

[davestlouis]

My kiddos like violent video games...TV's not as much of an issue, at least that's passive, but my boys would spend their whole lives playing games where they are shooting people and/or aliens if I would allow it.

Sex is everywhere too...and kids are pretty adept at hacking onto hardcore porn sites if you give them the chance...hence strict controls in my house on access to the 'puter.

I got the satellite turned off several months ago, and love the peace and tranquility.

 

[CliffG]

I do not watch the tv, occasionally I will watch a movie, but most of the time I either read stuff on the internet, talk with my wife, drink beer, read a book or some how combine it all into an evening; something like...I watching my wife drink MY beer while she is reading something on the internet and I sit in my old chair and read a book in the light of an mid 40's lamp, which my wife bought for me.
Even though she drinks my beers she is a fine wife!

 

[Brooksie]

I am sorry I have not read through any of the posts but I thought I would just say that yes I agree with you Forgotten Man I can not stand TV - I personally think it is a big waste of life! I have not owned a TV in 4 years and I do not miss it one bit. Sorry I hope I have not offended anybody by this.

Brooksie

 

[LordBest]

I spent my tough playing cops and robbers, defeat the alien invasion, cowboys and indians etc. None of that has made me a hardened killer, I doubt television and computer games will do it either*. Psychologial studies of the issue remain inconclusive, with some studies showing violent computer games can actually reduce 'anti-social behaviour'. The issue with violence on television to me is that is used in lieu of quality, the same applies to sex. Have a mediocre crime show? Spice it up with brutality in the name of realism and sex in the name of 'relevency'.

*I don't actually watch much violent television because I find it incredibly boring, for the most part. A notable exception would be HBOs Rome.

 

[Edward]

I live alone, and often watch a fair bit of tv of an evening, sitting with the cats. I watched far more in a long term relationship a few years ago; since then, I have deliberately cut out watching TV for its own sake - I try now only to have the set on when there is something specific I want to see. Actually, I find quite a lot of good TV - mostly BBC, and the better US imports on other channels. Film 4 is often a good source of old and contemporary films I might otherwise miss. If I lived in the US, I'd probably have gotten rid of it by now, though, if my experience in NYC was anything to go by; a half hour show which here would have had a single ad break wnt out with three or four when I looked at it there! I'm looking forward to the day when I can afford to buy a big flatscreen, though I will be hiding it inside some form of cabinet, as I hate the notion of a television being the focal point of the room when it is not in use.

 

[Tomasso]

When we're done beating up on television we might as well take to task the other forms of mass media; Radio, film, print, internet, etc......

 

[MisterCairo]

The cable was cancelled over two years ago. People talk about shows, actors and story lines like they're gospel. We haven't a clue what they're talking about, and they think we're odd for not knowing! Gosh, do people get upset when they ask "why don't you watch tv?" and we reply "because we have lives"!

 

[MisterCairo]

When we're done beating up on television we might as well take to task the other forms of mass media; Radio, film, print, internet, etc......

Don't get me started on that internet crap. What a time waster.....

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

I've only discovered FL recently. After many years of wandering the cultural wilderness I feel as if I've finally come home.

This thread strikes a resonant chord with me because I've led a relatively TV-free life for the past 15-20 years. While I do have a TV I very seldom watched it in all that time. So much so that I never even bothered to get a converter box when they switched from analog to digital broadcasting. Most of the hit TV shows from the last 20 years I've either never seen or just one or two episodes at most. The only reason I still have my TV is because it has a VCR/DVD player to watch the occasional -- very occasional -- movie. Instead, I generally use the time to read, draw or enjoy my various hobbies.

I find TV to be such a colossal waste of time -- as Forgotten Man puts it, a time vampire. I would even go as far as saying that I consider it to be one of the worst things ever invented. The vampire analogy is quite apropo because, in my opinion, TV sucks the life out of people, turning them into dull mediocrity. One of the reasons why I've always been fascinated by the Golden Era is because it seems that there were far more people back then who were interesting, and even multi-talented, than you would encounter today.

Prior to TV, which was throughout most of the Golden Era, and even though there was radio and movies, people still had to provide much of their own entertainment. Back then one probably went to the movies once a week. During the Depression many couldn't even afford that luxury. As a result, people did develop hobbies and interests. By way of illustration, albeit from more recent times, actress Lea Thompson from the Back to the Future movies once said in an interview that when she was growing up in the '70s her family was so poor that they couldn't even afford a TV. Having to provide their own entertainment, she and her siblings developed talents for dancing and music. Sadly, the advent of several hundred cable channels 24/7 has all but eliminated the need for most people to have any real hobbies or interests anymore.

I don't know how many times I've heard someone tell me that they don't have time for anything anymore even though studies have found that the average person watches almost four more hours of TV per week than they did a decade ago. But then again, these are very often the same folks who can bend my ear ad nauseum about what happened on American Idol last night. Back in the day people worked longer hours at jobs that were often far more gruelling than that of the average person's today so they had a greater appreciation of what little spare time they had and made full use of it.

The cable was cancelled over two years ago. People talk about shows, actors and story lines like they're gospel. We haven't a clue what they're talking about, and they think we're odd for not knowing! Gosh, do people get upset when they ask "why don't you watch tv?" and we reply "because we have lives"!

At this one place where I worked many years ago most of my co-workers were heavily into soap operas -- All My Children being the particular favorite. One day when I came to work they were talking about that day's episode where, apparently, one of the characters died. The way they went on you would have thought that this was a real person!

 

[Feraud]

When we're done beating up on television we might as well take to task the other forms of mass media; Radio, film, print, internet, etc......

lol Exactly!

Television seems to have a special place in the hearts of those who find current society empty and devoid of decent content. Radio can be lame but we have our cd, mp3s, etc. The internet is full of porn and riddled with viruses but we rely on our firewalls, antivirus programs, etc.
When it comes to television....look out!

 

[Lady Day]

When we're done beating up on television we might as well take to task the other forms of mass media; Radio, film, print, internet, etc......

I havent put on the radio in years. Too many commercials

Im a sucker for a good narrative, and would be a TV junkie if the shows made were actually good. Im sick of shows about rich 20 somethings struggling to find themselves holding jobs and having apartments that 40 somethings can only dream of, wearing designer clothes that are worth a months rent, blah blah. That and teenage vampires *bleck*

The craft of storytelling is what is missing for television. Sitcoms are not sitcoms anymore, people dont look 'normal' but these hyper idealized visuals of what 'pretty' is, almost so distorted that they are ugly. I just dont want to spend the time filtering through all of that. Silly me that I find a program that might engage my thought process further than "I wonder if Jan is gonna sleep with Cody next week!"

LD

 

[Mountain Man]

100% agree with the negative statements about TV - when I was a kid, the local station had a set programming schedule, and about the only things worth watching were "The Early Show" on weekday mornings - usually a 1930's-1950's movie, and "Shock Theatre" on Saturday afternoons. Oh, and on Sunday nights there was also "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom" on ABC and "The Wonderful World of Disney" on NBC.

Those were the only shows I cared to watch even as a small boy. Growing up in rural Western North Carolina, there was just too much for a kid to do outside - regardless of the season!! I always preferred visiting the "old folks", reading or hunting and fishing.

It is amazing and disheartening to see fully grown adults so addicted to the trash that is on TV now. I watch less TV now than I ever have in my life - about all I see is when someone else has it on when I am passing thru a room, and I just get aggravated when I do see most anything other than the History Channel.

 

[Edward]

When we're done beating up on television we might as well take to task the other forms of mass media; Radio, film, print, internet, etc......

Heh heh, yeah... TV does seem, in these parts, to be a representation of the 'modern' culture which has been rejected... It doe seem to me that if I waste too much time watching TV, it's my own fault, not the box in the corner...

 

[LizzieMaine]

When we're done beating up on television we might as well take to task the other forms of mass media; Radio, film, print, internet, etc......

Don't get me started on what's happened to radio, especially since the mid-1990s. If television is the toilet of modern culture, radio is the septic tank.

 

[Doctor Strange]

As others here have said, TV is simply not interested in targeting my mid-50s demographic, so there's very little that I still watch.

Over the last few years, I have given up on series TV altogether (apart from the outstanding Mad Men on AMC), both dramas and sitcoms. And I consider the ever-increasing number of "reality shows" a plague on all our houses, demonstrating both the creative bankruptcy of TV execs and the astoundingly low intelligence of the general public, both as viewers and participants. I just cannot force myself to watch anything calling itself reality TV for more than a couple of minutes without reflecting on the decline of western civilization.

(However, unlike many here, I don't lament the incursion of sex into TV programming: it's an important part of life, and shouldn't be hidden to placate some kind of antiquated religous bigotry. That said, I admit that there's too much sex-as-lowest-common-denominator-to-garner-braindead-attention-span-viewers out there, particularly on the alleged music channels that don't seem to be about music anymore.)

I still watch some PBS dramas, documentaries, and music, and I devour films of all kinds endlessly on the cable channels. But "mainstream" TV for me has become a vast wasteland...