
Ask HN: Who no longer has a dedicated TV at home? - lifeisstillgood
I was surprised at lunch today to find that almost half my (admittedly much younger) team do not have TVs at home.<p>Large laptops with big screens, tablets, pled servers et al, but actual dedicated TVs. No<p>The ones who did have TVs ... All had kids too.<p>So, am I old and out of touch or are these young metro hipsters taking things too far.<p>And can you still predict the future by watching how the young coders behave?
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anexprogrammer
Have kids, haven't had a TV since about 2002. It's 90% garbage, and ever more
and more ads. Now past 50 so count as old too. Kids were surprisingly not
fussed - a few complaints in the first week or two, no more. Played out more,
read more. Didn't suddenly start spending hours more at friends with TVs.

If they're around a TV they'll watch it of course.

YT, Netflix and other streaming covers the few things we do want to watch, and
movies. A bigger monitor would be good for movies. Much less overall screen
time though.

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jlgaddis
I didn't have a television for about seven years. In late 2013, the last time
I moved, I heard about the Roku [0]. I ended up buying one and a new TV.

I do have cable as well but only because a) it's only ~$6/mo. more than not
having it (and I got a $200 credit for upgrading from a "double play" to a
"triple play" plan) and b) the girlfriend stays here a few nights a week and
there's a few things she likes to watch.

I, myself, probably spend less than two hours a week actually watching
anything on the TV.

[0]: [https://www.roku.com](https://www.roku.com)

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PaulHoule
One question is: how do you define TV?

Computer monitors with HDMI ports will plug into cable boxes, blu ray players,
game consoles, stuff like that.

A "TV" will also have component video plugs, an ATSC tuner, etc.

A TV can make a fine computer monitor in some cases too.

Probably having kids is a good tracer for wanting a TV-like screen simply for
the ability to gather people around it. My son just turned 14 and he never got
in the habit of watching live TV although he watches Youtube and plenty of
recorded or straming movies and TV. I can't get him to sit to watch any kind
of sports.

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donohoe
I'm with the "have TV... have kids" group.

I suspect that we still would if we didn't have kids but rarely watch things
(we're cord cutters via Apple TV w/ Netflix).

Our family (including kids) collectively watch an hour of TV a week. Maybe a
movie once a month on top of that.

~~~
lifeisstillgood
But is that total screen time ? Ie my kids watch less tv than I suspect I did,
but it gets replaced with more video games like minecraft.

(I sort of stack rank activities in brain-rotting terms with normal TV at the
bottom, video games and educational apps somewhere in the middle and running
around in the fresh air at the top)

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wizzerking
I have not owned a TV since 2010 I used to subscribe to DirecTV, but they
required me to Upgrade my set top box back then so I dumped them, and
initially went over the Air HDTV then discovered Torrents and other internet
access. I gave the TV away in 2013

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willcate
Pretty hard for more than two people to watch a show on a laptop... and even
then it's a bit of a pain. Our kids are grown and gone, but the missus and I
enjoy a big Vizio with AppleTV gen. 4

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atsaloli
We haven't had a TV at home since we moved about 3 years ago.

Use a tablet when we want to watch a movie or a show. :)

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cauterized
I'm in my mid 30s and haven't had a TV for 5 or 6 years now. What on earth
would I need it for?

