Who Does Without TV?

[Paisley]

I think this thread has shown us that the Internet has basically replaced TV for a lot of people. Good or bad thing? You be the judge.

For me, DVDs and books on CD have replaced the TV. I can watch or listen to whatever I want to at my convenience and without commercials.

 

[AmateisGal]

For me, DVDs and books on CD have replaced the TV. I can watch or listen to whatever I want to at my convenience and without commercials.

Exactly my thoughts. There were too many times in the past when I had t.v. that I'd turn it on and end up wasting the afternoon or evening watching inane programs. I have SO much more time now that I don't have cable.

 

[ValenciaCalling]

I love the looks I get from people when I tell them I didn't have a T.V. in my room at college all last year. I've gotten more work done, and could actually hear myself think. It was fabulous. I know the girls I'll be sharing an apartment with next year will want one in the living room, but I have a feeling I won't be watching it anyway.

 

[sfend002]

I would miss my Sherlock Holmes on PBS!

Not to mention I really like staying connected in general. Just watched the Tour de France and it was great. The scenery was remarkable. Got me all revved up for my trip to France in October!!!

 

[Edward]

Books.

Never ceases to surprise me how many people just don't read at all nowadays. Shame.

Y'know how a lot of "War Room" scenes in movies have the maps hidden behind a moving panel in the wall? Sounds like what you need...

Yeah, that's pretty much the idea. I'm gonig to build in my own book cases floor/ceiling along two walls in my lounge, and I'll be working out something along those lines for the goggle box....

I think this thread has shown us that the Internet has basically replaced TV for a lot of people. Good or bad thing? You be the judge.

Well, it's just another means of distribution, isn't it? Depeends on the content, really, rather than the channel. One big difference with an 'on-demand' culture is the end of the shared-experience TV sensation that there used to be back when there were three channels and if you didn't watch it at the same time as everyone else, you missed it. That doesn't bother me personally, as I wilfully dropped out of the mainstream about twenty years ago, but it is an intweresting cultural shift. My one big concern would be if folks in the UK shifted away from TV ownership, and thus stopped paying the licence fee, in big enough numbers, the BBC would lose out on the income. A lot of folks don't like the Beeb and/or resent paying the licence fee, but I love the quality of output it creates, especially in the face of the sort of lowest common denomenator trash thatt so many of its commercial rivals pump out - X Factor, American Idol, Big Brother.... ghastly. Not that the Beeb isn't guilty of some ratings-chasing howlers too, but nothing like to the extent of what the likes of ITV pump out.

 

[vonwotan]

I spent many years without a television and I'm thinking about getting rid of it once again. I bought the TV and signed up for cable after much prompting by my visiting mother.

I much prefer reading and, I finally started to take a more deliberate approach to book collecting. Narrowing my focus, visiting more dealers and spending time learning from some long time collectors.

There is so little on TV that I enjoy, and so much that gets on my nerves...

 

[Dewhurst]

I am the owner of a single television. Its primary use is to be a visual outlet for my DVD/VCR/LD players.

I do have a digital converter so that I can get local broadcast stations. I primarily watch PBS (couldn't live without it!) and use it for weather broadcasts (which are terrifyingly important here in the South). I could never pay for subscription television, as most everything (90+ percent, I'm thinking) is absolute drivel.

Books play the dominant role in my quests for both knowledge and entertainment.

 

[Edward_Lindey]

Have not had any tv since moving out of my parents house in 2000. Just never got around to it. Now its kinda normal. We have lots of movies though.

Edward

 

[AmateisGal]

I do have a digital converter so that I can get local broadcast stations. I primarily watch PBS (couldn't live without it!) and use it for weather broadcasts (which are terrifyingly important here in the South). I could never pay for subscription television, as most everything (90+ percent, I'm thinking) is absolute drivel.

I admit, I do miss PBS. But I never bothered to get the digital converter.

 

[ladybrettashley]

My television is strictly a movie and Nintendo projector. I always love telling telemarketers that i don't have a tv; it's the only thing i've ever found that can strike a telemarketer dumb .

As a kid, we didn't get a tv until my older brother was 9. Story has it that he made up a television show when in pre-k so he wouldn't be the only one left out when his little friends were talking about cartoons and stuff lol lol. Actually my folks only got the set because he had to spend a few months in the hospital, to keep his mind off his injury (and nothing else much to do there). After that it lived in my parents' bedroom for a long time and was mostly for movies (and occasional cartoons). Other than that, i just watched every basketball game that came on for 8 years .

My Granny moved in with us when i was in high school. Her vision was going so that she couldn't read very much, so she brought her cable with her. With that available, we watched a bit more television, but nothing like daily.

I haven't really watched tv since high school. I'm generally appalled when i end up stuck somewhere watching it (especially tv news), though i do like a couple of shows. Only, not enough to bother watching them.

 

[Edward]

Nice story about your brother. I remember some kids that were a few years younger than me at school whose father refused to have a TV in the house - they were Bretheren, a denomination which at one time anyhow did not hold with TV, cinema, and theatre, though I don't know whether in this case it was a religious objection or purely a personal one. At any rate, those kids watched more TV than anyone - they'd go round friends houses, but only want to watch TV, never play anything. Forbidden fruit syndrome writ large! lol

 

[Undertow]

Personally, I could go without television programming for the rest of my life. I'm currently using a set of rabbit ears for my digital "reception" and I only have about 3 channels coming in. It's been no great loss, although I find the move to digital, as well as its inferior reception, a bit asinine.

In any case, I care very little for tv programming and I don't watch it very often. I occupy my television screen with various movies from Netflix; and that's just how it will have to stay until digital reception actually works. [huh]

 

[LizzieMaine]

Personally, I could go without television programming for the rest of my life. I'm currently using a set of rabbit ears for my digital "reception" and I only have about 3 channels coming in. It's been no great loss, although I find the move to digital, as well as its inferior reception, a bit asinine.

Follow the money. The move to digital was never about improving reception -- it was about the profits that could be gained by reassigning broadcast spectrum. Around here, with the move to digital, over-the-air free television is no longer an option -- we were a fringe reception area before, and now there is no reception at all.

But hey, maybe it'll bring back radio.

 

[Undertow]

But hey, maybe it'll bring back radio.

You know, it may sound completely silly to some people out there, but I sincerely wish broadcasters would reinvent (or at least emulate) old radio shows like Bergen and McCarthy, The Shadow, etc. I would LOVE to come home, eat dinner and sit around the radio to listen to a good show.

 

[Lamplight]

I own a television, but like several others here I only use it to watch movies (preferably old movies ). I stopped watching in October of 2007 and I haven't missed it once since then. If I'm going to waste time I much prefer to do it online where at least there's the chance that I'll learn something. The best part of giving up television (for me) was that I started reading again. For years since high school I had trouble reading. I could read a paragraph over and over for thirty minutes and not remember a single thing I had just read. No idea why, but now I have no trouble at all and I read all the time. My attention span seems to have increased, too.

 

[Paisley]

They say that kids who watch little or no TV tend to do better in school. Maybe there's more to that than simply having more time for homework.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

They say that kids who watch little or no TV tend to do better in school. Maybe there's more to that than simply having more time for homework.

Maybe so. Part of my reasoning for avoiding TV was that I read an article back in the 70's about how people that watched the most scored lowest on creativity tests. So it's like a case of use it or lose it,... it seems that letting the tube do our creating for us makes our own creativity suffer.

 

[Gene]

You know, it may sound completely silly to some people out there, but I sincerely wish broadcasters would reinvent (or at least emulate) old radio shows like Bergen and McCarthy, The Shadow, etc. I would LOVE to come home, eat dinner and sit around the radio to listen to a good show.

It could happen. But again, with the Internet, we can all easily look up those shows and listen to them on demand. Our culture as a whole (and it's getting worse) has an attention span of zero and we all demand everything instantly. Having to wait and patience are virtues of the past. That is another reason why TV is losing to Internet.

Hell, the fact that we are here posting on this forum is proof that the Internet has changed our world so much.

 

[klind65]

Gave it up

Growing up, I read books which denounced television for its mind numbing and subliminal effects. I also realized that there are so many better things to do with my time. For example, my family and I are enthusiasts of board games. Learn to play bridge or chess or backgammon! etc... They are great fun, allow people to interact ( in contrast to TV) and stimulate the mind.
Additionally,as I realized more fully my preference for previous eras, the television fare simply began to offend me and was promulgating values, practices and language that conflicted with the ways of the past that I wished to experience undilluted with modern influences.
One wonderful thing which almost everyone in the past ( especially the 19th century) did was to sing. Most families had a piano and great times were had by playing and singing songs along to the piano. I'm currently taking singing lessons and find it extremely rewarding.
How about learning another language? I'm working now on the Rosetta Stone German and it is a lot of fun.
Perhaps this temporary loss of TV will be a blessing for you in the long run. Try it for a while and see if you can get along without it. I found I completely do not miss it! I have one only in order to watch my classic films on DVD or VHS.
Kind wishes, klind65

 

[AmateisGal]

You know, it may sound completely silly to some people out there, but I sincerely wish broadcasters would reinvent (or at least emulate) old radio shows like Bergen and McCarthy, The Shadow, etc. I would LOVE to come home, eat dinner and sit around the radio to listen to a good show.

I don't think it's silly at all. I'd love to see this come back.

But for the time being, I just downloaded a bunch of the originals off the 'Net. That's one of my favorite things to do in the winter evenings - work on my embroidery and listen to an old radio show.