
Why I Traded My TV for a Turntable - Nathanael
https://blog.nathanaelsilverman.com/2017/08/05/no-tv/
======
icebraining
Truly evergreen content: [http://www.theonion.com/article/area-man-constantly-
mentioni...](http://www.theonion.com/article/area-man-constantly-mentioning-
he-doesnt-own-a-tel-429)

~~~
kurthr
Yeah, I guess if you've built your life around TV this would seem amazing. But
if you only watch at friends or a few series a year... and waste far more time
online- HN and blogs, it seems like talking about your latest diet. Mobile
seems like a much harder habit to kick, and even that you can do by going on
vacation. Of course all this assumes you have the money, time, and attention
to spare.

------
vortico
I kind of feel the opposite. I'm a music nerd and enjoy listening to records,
but I never watch movies or TV. This is the most difficult barrier I have with
interacting with people at social events, because people talk about television
instead of music. If anyone brings up a popular reference, I likely don't
understand it and immediately have to drop out of the conversation. The best
way to fix this is to watch _just enough_ of popular TV (skip through movies
in 15 minutes just to get the idea, watch the pilot episode of TV shows) while
alone to make sure I know at least enough to keep up with friends. It's much
easier for other people because they actually enjoy it.

~~~
kaffeemitsahne
Just talk about other things lol. Watching TV just so you can understand pop
culture references sounds pretty depressing.

~~~
vortico
Unfortunately when meeting new people, you don't always have control of the
conversation's direction. Once I know someone, they'll know I don't like
talking about it, but having conversations with people I already know is the
easy part of life.

~~~
jackgolding
Why not just go to local gigs to socialise? I've been going to gigs in
Melbourne for 11 months now and its how I've met all of my friends here. At
first I felt out of place that I didn't listen to Misfits growing up like many
people here did but you will find there is always a band you can talk to
someone about.

A few years ago I took your approach with music, I'd listen to every new major
label hip-hop/rap album on the day of release and guess what? No one I knew
could talk about any of the albums in the detail I knew because they listen to
whats on the radio or in the club - not saying that its a bad thing, but I
think you are over-rating how much people care about "pop culture"

------
chiefofgxbxl
> Day 6—What if this becomes an alienating experience because the rest of the
> world has changed? What if I make time for social connections that can’t
> happen, because there’s nobody left to connect to?

I was afraid of this race-to-the-bottom scenario on campus at my university
(and probably any university across America).

People would bring their cell phones into the dining halls and the student
center. This isn't a problem if a few people do it, but it almost seems
contagious to me. _When people disconnect themselves from the public, while
they are in public, it destroys the whole purpose of being in public._ They
become absorbed in their phones, which eliminates any possibility of meeting a
new friend or starting a conversation. That in turn causes other people, who
would have done those social things, to turn to their phones so they may go to
the only place they may now communicate: social media.

It all seems so silly: hundreds of students in a student center or other
public space, all heads down focused on their phones. Then what was the point
of having a student center in the first place? I feel bad for people who
struggle with forming new relationships, as the public space is decreasingly
helping those people meet others.

My university president even mentioned in a "fireside chat" video that a great
challenge our campus faced was a student engagement problem. I wonder why? Not
like the university did anything toward that effort... in fact, they installed
even more televisions in all the dining halls across campus.

I'll shamelessly admit, though many would disagree with me, that I hope one
day in the near future public store owners, campus owners, etc. all ban
screens (phones and TVs) in public spaces. It's fine to use them in your home,
but I believe it's destroying the social fabric when everyone is always glued
to a screen, even in public.

\---

Also relevant: when I was young my mom was concerned that I was addicted to
the computer. She wasn't wrong.

But at least my addiction is limited to the private realm. It would be
impractical to lug around a desktop computer everywhere I went to extract
every precious minute of entertainment possible. The stereotype of the guy
playing World of WarCraft in his mom's basement is at least limited to that
basement.

Today we have the equivalent of those guys and girls playing WoW in their
mom's basement, but it's not in the basement... it's _everywhere_.

~~~
reader5000
I'm in restaurants and I notice kids just old enough to hold a phone spending
the entire meal staring at it. Theres no way thats remotely healthy for brain
development.

~~~
toomanybeersies
Before phones and tablets were a thing, kids would usually be drawing or
colouring something.

I think there is something different with mobile devices though, I've seen
kids using iPads before and they barely manage a couple of minutes in one app
or game before they switch out to another. I really how this sort of behaviour
is going to manifest when they grow up, are we heading for a generation with
zero patience and attention span? I see it even in adults these days.

One thing I got really good at as a kid was being patient. When waiting for an
appointment, I'll usually sit there and wait without staring at a screen. It's
nice to have a few minutes to just do nothing.

~~~
jackgolding
Humans attention span is now less than goldfish, give this a look:
[http://time.com/3858309/attention-spans-
goldfish/](http://time.com/3858309/attention-spans-goldfish/)

~~~
EADGBE
_Canadian_ humans have an average less than goldfish.

Whew. That was a close.

------
exogeny
Cool story, but I don't really love the recent surge I've seen on here of
people submitting their own blog posts. (And, as it were, literally every
single one of this dude's submissions are posts from his blog.) This shouldn't
be another vector for self-promotion, this should be a forum in which the most
insightful and/or conversation-generating content is organically sourced and
ranked.

My opinion, of course.

~~~
skrebbel
I'm not sure, I feel like that's always been pretty common on HN and I also
don't see the problem. HN is not very anti-commercial in nature, after all.

------
torgoguys
tldr: TV is bad because it is a time-suck and there are much better uses of my
time like switching to an archaic, time-wasting (my opinion) method of playing
music with a method that involves having to (quoting him about the difficulty
of records): "[remove] the dust it [the record] easily collects, as well as
cleaning the stylus [...] Records have 2 sides, each containing a little over
20 minutes worth of music, so you have to flip them. Some albums take up 2 or
even 3 records."

Yeah, the above is a little snotty, and if TV was becoming a problem for him
and removing it was the only way he could keep himself from wasting too much
time on it, fine. But linking that process to taking up vinyl (for unexplained
reasons) is a strange turn at the end of the post.

~~~
hanklazard
Yeah, the turntable link seemed forced. I went back up to the end of the
article after finishing to see if I missed a paragraph or something.

For me, TV is fine. I've been enjoying GoT episodes on Sunday night for the
last few weeks. I don't consider an enjoyable show a time-sink, unless you
binge-watch for days on end (that's a rarity for me).

As others have said, my cell phone and a variety of interesting websites
{cough, cough ... HN ..cough} take-up MUCH more of my time. I'm definitely
considering a break from my smart phone, the habits I've developed seem
unhealthy. That being said, I would never use my phone at a urinal!

------
toomanybeersies
It's perfectly possible to do these things without throwing away your TV, you
just need to have self control.

~~~
munificent
There was an article a while back about a study someone did around willpower
and self control. If I recall, their finding was not that the people who are
better at delaying their gratification just have iron willpower and grind it
out. Instead, they are smart enough to do things like remove themselves from
temptation in order to make it take less willpower to accomplish their goals.

If the author if this article felt getting rid of their TV made it easier for
them to live the life they want to live, I don't understand at all why so many
people in this thread feel the need to criticize that.

Imagine an obese people wrote some blog post about throwing out all the
cookies in their cabinet so they wouldn't be as tempted to eat them. We'd
applaud that. Likewise, an alcoholic quitting their job bartending to get to a
better environment.

But when it comes to media addiction, well... maybe it hits a little too close
to home for many of us? Easier to criticize someone who tries to do better
than to take an uncomfortable look in the mirror.

------
cocoa19
My dopamine hit: I read HN instead of checking Reddit, FB, Twitter, etc. I am
addicted to HN.

~~~
thinbeige
Same here. My HN addiction got really worse, so I started to block HN at day
and use Reddit instead. Somehow it's less addictive for me and some subs are
super funny. Still a time sink.

------
willow9886
I gave up my TV in January.

I don't miss the black mirror when it's turned off.

I don't miss making special space in my house for another screen.

I don't miss Netflix.

It has forced me to be more conscious about what I want to watch, and where
and how.

~~~
OJFord
But where and how? If you don't have one at all, when you make a more
deliberate decision to, how do you?

I'm all for demoting the object in terms of rooms, but if you rid your house
of it completely I'm not sure what you mean by deciding what, where, and how
to watch television?

~~~
Jedd
Not the person you were asking, however we (two adults, no kids) haven't had a
TV per se since 2006. The 'no receiver' thing is less of a distinction now
than it used to be, despite 'Internet TV' taking a while to land in AU, but it
used to be the best way to describe our arrangement.

We still _watch_ TV shows and Movies, periodically, but on a short-throw
projector.

This takes up less room by day, of course, and because we have a convenient
wall or blind to use as the screen it also doesn't lend to a 'circle of chairs
around the TV' visual that I expect some people do not like. And, of course,
if doing a genuine time-fill there's laptop, desktop, or tablet to catch up on
something - though the comparatively low-quality experience seems to mean this
happens less frequently.

Because it takes some small amount of effort to set up, and bulb life is a
gentle back-of-mind consideration, we tend to watch TV in the evenings, and
_intentionally_.

A perhaps subtle distinction, but I know enough people who've grown up with
the TV on all the time, and who now find that so normal that they've inflicted
the same thing on their own children. Visiting the homes of people with an
always-on TV puts me in the same mood as having to listen to talk-back radio,
anything with adverts, 'news' video+audio at train stations, and so on - viz.
foul.

As an aside, decent projectors are around AUD $1k - less than a TV with a
smaller display (albeit a better objective quality). For people who don't have
an always-on approach to TV, it's a good option in terms of cost, experience
and gentle encouragement of being more thoughtful with what / when you watch.

~~~
OJFord
Oh, wow, I'd not realised we were discussing an 'always on' level of prior
usage.

Personally, both in childhood and living alone now, my consumption has always
been deliberate.

I do dislike the 'circle of chairs around a TV' aesthetic you describe, at
least in a main reception room, which is why I suggested 'demoting' the set as
a favourable solution for some. I suppose, though I haven't thought of it
before, that's inspired from growing up with a 'home cinema', (although we
also had a television in the sitting room, most of our deliberate viewing 'in
numbers' would be there, on the projector) and visiting my grandparents, whose
only television was in a den separate to their sitting room.

------
paulcole
Follow up: How I Cured the Arm Pain Caused By Patting Myself On The Back For
Not Owning a TV

------
albertogui
I wanted to get a projector for a similar reason, it allows for more active
viewing since the whole home has to be darkened rather than having it be
easily accessible or in the background.

------
whipoodle
Good grief. Please do not take so much pride in what you consume or refrain
from consuming.

~~~
i6Respawns
there's nothing wrong with taking pride in how you spend your time.

~~~
dagw
There is when you feel a need to gloat about it on your blog.

~~~
reitanqild
Nah.

I miss the old blogs.

People writing about stuff. Writing an answer to some really dumb idea on a
other blog.

The man writing about making eating a snake and digging a trench in the back
yard.

~~~
icebraining
Old blogs? People still write that stuff. My current favorite is Syonyk's.

------
EADGBE
LOL. I don't throw this around much, but what a hipster:

"Replacing it with a turntable went even further. Do you have any idea how
complicated it is to play music on those things? I didn’t. Playing a record
usually involves removing the dust it easily collects, as well as cleaning the
stylus (the part that comes in contact with the record). Records have 2 sides,
each containing a little over 20 minutes worth of music, so you have to flip
them. Some albums take up 2 or even 3 records.

I’m pretty sure I’ll never become addicted to that process. But its length is
what’s great about it. The time it takes to setup prompts me to pause and
enjoy the experience. Now ask yourself, when’s the last time you took a breath
and enjoyed the music?"

Come on man, who are you trying to appease? It's not yourself.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Process is important. If we don't invest in an activity, it becomes worthless
to us. This is well understood. Thus, ceremony and ritual in so many cultures.
Making tea, greeting a guest and offering them a drink, taking a casserole to
the church picnic.

Modern music is a click away. And dismissing it for the next track is another
click away. Folks have confused the activity (listening) with the instant-
gratification/enjoyment of the music. Both are important. Else the music just
becomes so much cotton-candy sugar to our senses. Instead of an experience.

~~~
EADGBE
Don't get me wrong, I completely agree. It just came out of left field for the
author and was stated in such a way that it was an attempt to become someone,
instead of harbor a general interest in old analog and physical music curation
ways.

------
Symbiote
> There’s a new thing happening at my workplace where men use their phones
> while at the urinal.

I wonder if it will ever become socially unacceptable to hand your phone to
someone else, to show a photo or whatever.

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Hydraulix989
This isn't Nate Silver is it?

~~~
pkd
No.

