

A year without TV - jgrahamc
http://www.jgc.org/blog/2010/02/year-without-tv.html

======
scotch_drinker
It always intrigues me to read someone's account of how they have given up TV.
More often than not, they are just watching some TV show (in this case 24) via
some other distribution channel. They are still watching TV just not on TV.
Also more often than not, they will degrade some other show as evidence of the
disaster that TV is all the time missing the point that what TV programs you
watch are a matter of taste and choice.

Ridiculing So You Think You Can Dance for being shallow and pointless while
lauding 24 which is filled with completely fake scenes and violence is odd.
While the "reality" part of SYTYCD is a little silly, the people on the show
are actually doing something amazingly hard in front of quite a few people
with no props or fake explosions to manipulate your emotions. And I say this
with no real affinity to either show.

In the end, fine, say you've given up TV. But really you've only given up the
distribution channel and you have chosen to watch things you like when you
like them. But calling one show rubbish and using it as an example of why TV
in toto is bad starts to sound like a matter of taste to me. Just because you
don't like something does not mean it sucks.

~~~
axod
Agreed. It's probably more accurate to say "I've given up just watching
_anything_ , and now choose to watch only the TV programs that
interest/entertain me".

Which is what a large amount of people already do, who own a TV.

So the fact you own/don't own a TV is irrelevant. You've changed your behavior
from 'watch whatever is on', to 'watch things I want to watch'.

~~~
Groxx
It's also that many anti-TVers are simply anti-TV-ad-ers, though they don't
explicitly state so. Most alternate sources of TV content have fewer ads (at
least, of the kind that interject into the content) than TV. Beyond that,
about the only thing you can complain about is the timing of what's available
/ what will fit on your DVR, where you can stream from Hulu or expand your
computer's HD space as needed.

~~~
axod
Yeah may be true. And I agree it's a problem in the ad heavy US, but not as
much other places. Also, just get a PVR, start watching the TV show 10 minutes
after it started, and skip the ads if they annoy.

There's something you lose if you just go to on demand stuff. TV is an
'event', at a specific time. Kids go to the playground and talk about what
they saw on TV last night. I think that's pretty useful socially to have
shared experiences like that. I'd hate to be the kid that doesn't have
anything to talk about because his parents don't have a TV.

~~~
Groxx
_useful socially to have shared experiences_

Overall, I agree, though plenty of arguments can be made for and against this,
especially where TV is concerned (given its brain-rotting tendencies).
Personally, I grew up on mostly different shows than everyone else anyway, so
I only shared experiences with an extremely small group of people, most of
whom I'm sure I never met. Bill Nye, Nova, and generally PBS (no cable) were
my shows of choice through all of elementary school. I also had the Animaniacs
lineup near its beginning, but the vast majority of other kids my age (at my
school) didn't get most of it.

Not bragging about my "mental might" here, my parents & older sister just did
a good job loading me with things to learn before and during that age, so I
had a real intellectual advantage at elementary school. They taught me most
things 1-on-1 well before they came up in school. It's definitely put me in a
different social circle, as I associate more with geeks than other
stereotypes, but I'm happy here. For myself, I'll call not sharing a lot of
the "normal" TV experience a positive thing.

------
grellas
When I was a kid growing up in the 1950s, I thought I was being deprived
because my immigrant parents had a thing about _not_ getting a TV in the
house. This actually forced me to grow up as an avid reader, which I realized
only years later proved a great long-term benefit.

Back then (and into the 60s and 70s), TV was wholesome enough but highly
limited: mainly three networks (CBS, NBC, ABC) that gave us news, variety
shows, and old style sitcoms such as the Beverly Hillbillies and a few local
UHF stations that mainly featured old movie reruns. Apart from the "all-night"
UHF station, most stations signed off by midnight and then went silent for the
night, using an "Indian" image or some equivalent to alert viewers to the fact
that they were off the air. I would say, throughout that entire period, that
TV was for me what I would call a pleasant time-killer. I wouldn't watch that
much of it but, after working like a fiend all week doing my studies and
working odd jobs to pay my tuition, it was pretty relaxing to settle back into
a sofa and just passively watch something - an old movie, a sports event, a
stupid comedy, or whatever - without any demands being made upon me. That was
the appeal: a mostly mindless diversion with occasional drama when some
important news event captured the nation's fancy (e.g., the Apollo 13 drama).

Today, with cable and with digital channels, TV has far more variety with its
countless channels and its ubiquitous round-the-clock presence but it remains
for me a mostly mindless sinkhole for my time whenever I get caught up
watching it, which is not too often. Network news has been largely displaced
by wall-to-wall coverage by cable networks of whatever story it is they want
to pound to death, with an emphasis on "reality" stories (e.g., what is
today's tidbit of information that we can add to the story of the missing
teenager who vanished in the Caribbean?). Reality-TV formats are everywhere,
creating voyeuristic opportunities to watch people interacting with one
another in this or that setting and featuring really nothing more than the
personalities of the participants as points of interest. All this and more is
for me little more than the "vast wasteland" that Newton Minnow called TV back
in the 1960s, with the quality of programming having settled in at a level of
almost mind-numbing banality.

That said, TV is nothing more than a medium and will always feature this or
that item that is indeed interesting or stimulating. It just is not a good
_habit_ to find oneself continually caught up in it. Used selectively, it can
be just fine for occasional entertainment or for particular items of news or
commentary. Not normally very profitable but nothing to be too critical about
either.

------
eslifka
This reminds me distinctly of this onion article:
<http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28694>

It's great that he doesn't watch television (except that he does, he just gets
it through an alternate channel and is more selective of what he watches) but
he puts forth no interesting discussion about the merits thereof. He does
mention copyright issues, but only to say that he doesn't violate copyright
because it's too much work. He again doesn't make any discussion points on the
matter.

~~~
jgrahamc
It's odd that it reminds you of that. Is me mentioning this once on my blog
your measure of 'constantly'?

~~~
axod
People who don't watch TV do tend to mention it at every opportunity. But they
likely watch youtube vids, interviews, webcasts etc.

So it's like someone constantly going on about how they haven't even owned a
car for 5 years! And forgetting to mention they have a 4x4 pickup truck now.

~~~
Goladus
_People who don't watch TV do tend to mention it at every opportunity._

Most of those opportunities are probably situations when the topic of
conversation has already turned to television and they are politely excusing
their lack of participation.

In my experience, the topic rarely comes up. My guess is most people who would
care are off watching TV rather than socializing.

~~~
axod
I think knowing about popular culture is actually quite valuable. Especially
if you're trying to sell to end users as many of us here are.

>> "In my experience most people who don't watch much TV are too busy doing
other things to bother bragging about it."

Like checking reddit, watching youtube vids, laughing at lolcats? ;)

~~~
Goladus
Like:

At work, at the gym, playing tennis, basketball, volleyball, at rehearsal, at
a concert, at the opera, at a movie, at the bar, dancing at a club,
snowboarding, making dinner, sharing dinner, studying, tutoring, coding,
writing, painting, hiking, chatting, fucking. I have active friends.

------
lambda
I've gone my entire life without TV, at least on a regular basis; I've visited
friends with TVs, had roommates with TVs, etc, but never have I or my
immediately family owned one, and even my roommates with TVs didn't watch
much.

I resented it a bit when I was a kid, since my friends would talk about shows
they watched that I couldn't. By the time I hit my teens I had realized what a
waste of time it is, though, and I haven't wanted one since.

I occasionally watch a show or clips online, usually when my girlfriend wants
to; there are a few shows that she likes. I do watch movies. I will also
occasionally watch the Daily Show or something similar online.

Of course, as time wasting and mind-dulling as a lot of TV is, I find that I
waste as much or more on the internet, so I'm not sure it's a net positive.
The problem is, I can almost always find content that interests me on the
internet, that is even plausibly useful, so it's hard to get myself away from
it. The social aspect of posting to the internet and getting comments,
feedback, upvotes, and the like also helps to suck me in.

On the whole, I think a lot of the reason I don't like much of TV is the ads
and the mass-market homogenization. Some niche content appeals to me, so I
tend to get a lot more out of internet videos that would never be popular
enough to be on TV (people swapping juggling videos online, small foreign
productions that will likely never make it to the US like the IT Crowd, stuff
like that). As TV and the internet converges, with more channels added,
premium channels that are free of ads, and so on, it might be that more of the
"TV" content will appeal to me, but for now, I just don't have much interest
in a lot of the content that is out there.

------
gxs
I can never read articles such as these and shake the author's holier than
thou attitude toward tv and tv watchers.

To say you don't watch TV now is not the same as saying it twenty years ago. I
mean, how different really is it to watch an episode of so you think you can
dance and read half the crap that makes it to the front of reddit nowadays?
how different is it to watch people trying to dance than it is to watch a cat
do something "funny" or some stupid fffuuu cartoon?

In the past, when people said they didn't watch TV it meant they were living a
certain lifestyle. With the advent of the internet, that just doesn't apply
anymore.

Perhaps it is a personal failure, but these articles always reek of, look at
me, yet another thing I use to make myself feel better than other people.

And no, this isn't me lashing out because I watch hours and hours of TV.

------
david927
About 20 years. I don't miss it at all. In fact, I can't recommend it highly
enough.

~~~
albertcardona
About 13 years--on moving out of my parents, to college. Never missed it a
single minute.

~~~
gcb
completing 15.

------
RyanMcGreal
> It was a wonderful reminder of why I don't have a TV.

Amen. So much of TV programming is a gas that expands to fill the airwaves -
and economic pressures these days push that content toward low-quality dreck
that has little to recommend it other than the fact that it earns a bit more
in ad revenue than it costs to produce (I'm looking at _you_ , reality TV).

The issue, it seems to me, is not one of quitting TV per se but of quitting
the business model in which you pay a flat monthly rate for a bundle of
channels. Since you've already paid for it and since it's there anyway, it's
easy to rationalize and get used to the idea of sitting down and channel
surfing.

Aside from being a major time suck, this also tends to _normalize_ the idea of
spending hours watching rubbish that literally makes you dumber.

It's not until you make a sharp break from that kind of exposure that you
start to notice just how bizarre and dysfunctional it all is.

We have a TV, but don't receive any channels - by cable, satellite or aerial -
and haven't for about a decade. We do tend to come across high quality TV
shows from time to time - mostly on the recommendation of friends whose taste
we trust - and if we really like a show, we'll buy it on DVD. That way we get
to watch it in sequence, without commercial interruptions, whenever we feel
like it.

If a show is not good enough to warrant repeat viewings, it's not good enough
to buy.

------
ugh
I would guess that the bigger trend is a switch from broadcasting to on demand
usage of video content. Broadcasting is really only better than on demand
video in very specific and rare circumstances. But until a few years ago cheap
(free) and convenient on demand video was not available. The only (cheap) way
to get video was broadcasting. My guess would be that in the next ten to
twenty years broadcasting video will shrink while on demand video will grow.

------
ilamont
I was TV-less for several years-long periods (starting when I lived overseas
in a non-English-speaking country). It's actually easier to do now, thanks to
the loads of other time-wasting alternatives, such as Web video, Web surfing,
and mobile apps.

~~~
axod
Agreed. I don't think many people who proclaim how they haven't owned a TV for
years understand the irony - they've switched one activity for an even dumber
activity.

------
lionhearted
It's been years for me. Occasionally I find myself watching TV in a hotel or
at a friend's house or bar or some such. What amazes me is not how bad TV is,
but how _good_ it is. It's enjoyable, stimulating, highly pleasant
distraction. There's some really, really good shows. It's easier to zone out
with than reading a book or playing a difficult game. Really, TV is pretty
good stuff at what it does.

Just - my long term goals don't jive with TV. I want my distraction/relaxation
to also further my social life, learning, or industriousness. So I'll play
difficult games that force lots of thinking (Civilization IV on one of the top
three difficulties, online Risk over at Conquer Club, Darklands with an
emulator), or I'll read a book, or I'll go to a museum, or I'll watch TED
talks, or read Hacker News, or I'll click around in Wikipedia to learn more of
different philosophies and eras of history, or I'll do something social with
someone, or just go sit in nature or a park or a place I can be out amongst
people.

These distract, stimulate, and relax to different degrees, but one of them
should get the job done at any given time, and ideally my
distraction/relaxation/stimulation also furthers one of my other goals. I'm
amazed at how _good_ TV is - and that's what scares me about it, because it
doesn't further my other goals at all.

~~~
_pius
_What amazes me is not how bad TV is, but how good it is._

I'm glad to hear this perspective here. Let me pose a question: What exactly
makes watching a thoughtful, well-crafted drama (for instance, _The Wire_ ) on
television any less worthy than reading a good back or going to watch a play?

I think there's a lot of unfortunate knee-jerk bias against TV.

~~~
lolcraft
I think you are posing the wrong question.

TV is not a particular series; it doesn't follow that people who hate TV must
hate The Wire. TV as a whole, as a linear, inconvenient way of displaying
content which doesn't allow an easy way to filter out the crap, is what it's
being biased against.

------
jsz0
When I stopped watching TV on a regular basis about a decade ago the biggest
thing I noticed was how peaceful and relaxing a quiet room can be. Getting rid
of this constant fast paced grind that is linear TV can really be a load off
your mind. It's OK to just sit down in a comfy chair and do absolutely nothing
other than enjoy your own thoughts. When I visit a friend's house who is a
believer in TV as "background noise" it actually makes me uncomfortable. I
feel like my brain is being pulled in a dozen different directions at once and
it's hard to focus with the distractions. I think most people would benefit
from taking breaks from TV so they don't get totally de-sensitized to the
effect it's having on them.

~~~
Poiesis
What I've noticed is that programs have gotten more...in-your-face, loud,
obnoxious. Kids cartoons now are so frenzied as to be seemingly seizure-
inducing. More mainstream fare is more deliberately attention getting. Many
many shows are based on public humiliation now, which just completely puzzles
me. Obviously it sells very well, but I just don't see the point.

------
axod
Nothing worse than hollier than thou high and mighty "TV is dumb and for the
idiot masses".

If you actually learnt how to use a TV guide, and decided to watch only
programs that interest you, you might have a different view point.

And how can you not even mention "micro men" from the BBC which was a
fantastic look at the 80s home computer revolution. How can you not rate
Newsnight? Question time?

Will the next meme be "I haven't even been connected to the internet for a
year! The internet is full of rubbish and I don't miss it one bit"?

~~~
jgrahamc
Yes, I did watch Micro Men. That was great. Downloaded it on the iPlayer
Desktop and watched it on a long flight to the US.

I've watched Newsnight twice in the last year. I've never watched Question
Time. Is it good?

Mostly, I feel I don't need to learn to use a TV guide because the people
around me are constantly saying 'Did you see X?'. They are doing the filtering
for me.

~~~
axod
Fair enough. Maybe I was harsh. I just hate the implication that TV is for
dumb idiots.

I would say if we took the content on the web, and compared it with the
content on TV, the web would not come out of the comparison well at all.

And yes, if you're interested in politics,news,world issues,etc Question Time
is good.

There's 100s of other TV shows that are of fantastic quality and well worth
watching. QI springs to mind for example (Stephen Fry).

~~~
zach
Oh, you lucky so-and-sos who get to watch Only Connect on BBC Four. There is
no legal (or even expedient) way for me to watch it here in the USA. Then
again, we don't pay for a TV license...

~~~
axod
Yeah it's a whole other world. If I was in the US, I probably wouldn't watch
TV either. But I'd also quickly go insane.

------
mr_november
Author is clearly not a sports fan - it's the only reason I have a TV, a PVR,
a subscription to innumerable channels (because here in Canada you need to sub
to many 'basic' channels to receive any of the sports-specific channels) etc.

Ugh, just made me realize how much I spend just to watch sports - but that
desire is not going anywhere and I'll continue to do so.

------
mcantor
As an avid console gamer, I own a nice TV, but I have had the same "hotel TV"
experience. I was at PyCon in Chicago last year, and the hotel rooms had these
gorgeous flat panel televisions. In a flash, I realized that I had absolutely
no idea what to do with the one in my room, since it didn't have a game
console attached to it. Like Mr. JGC, I watch some things via Hulu, Netflix or
on DVD, but I haven't dealt with cable/network programming & commercials for
years.

Worse than news were the commercials. I think it was George Carlin who said,
"If you want to see how screwed up our country is, just turn the TV on for
five minutes sometime, and watch only commercials." I don't mind the
occasional ad on Hulu since they're far less frequent. I often find myself
feeling exhausted after 5 minutes of commercials on television--it feels like
nothing so much as being buffeted from all angles.

------
CrLf
I gave up on TV and now just watch cat videos on YouTube. Much better.

------
webology
I stopped watching TV in early 2008. My TV sat for over six months without
being turned on. I didn't download, buy, or watch television content online
either. My first return back to TV was so I could watch coverage of the DNC
and RNC during the election. Late that fall / early winter, I started meeting
friends in sports bars to watch KU football and basketball games.

After I stopped watching television, I found that I no longer want to be
invested in series programming. Shows that I had watched for years, I stopped
watching and I have not picked back up (House was one of my favorites). There
are several series that I keep getting told that I should watch (Lost, Heroes,
...) but I just seem them as big chunks of wasted time now. In 2009 I returned
to watching TV but I find that I turn on channels like Adult Swim at night and
it's more background noise while I'm online.

------
wallflower
I haven't had a TV for three years. The hardest part was giving up Lost in
Season Two. I feel lost when friends talk about "The Wire", "Weeds", "24" but
I'd rather live vicariously through my own life. I don't even Hulu. I almost
feel like TV is a treadmill - just keeping up with show plot trajectories.

Getting rid of a TV isn't a magic solution for life's problems. It doesn't
make you more social. It doesn't make you focus on your big projects though.
You can easily whittle away free time surfing on your iPhone on your couch (as
I do).

I recently saw a two-year old boy whose parents had been raising without TV.
They've succumbed. Thomas the Train. Previously, without TV, he would
literally cry on the floor for 20 min. straight - because what the heck do
small kids do if the parents can't distract them with the real opiate of the
masses, in Karl Marx parlance.

------
LucaDuval
There is a point that I don't see mentioned in any other comments, maybe
because it applies only in my country (Italy). The main benefit of not
watching TV here is that you avoid the relentless, hidden or explicit,
endorsement of our right-wing party and the consequent manipulation of
reality.

~~~
pavs
Happens here in USA all the time.

For right-wing distortion of reality: Fox News

For Left-wing distortion of reality: MSNBC

CNN is a twitter feed. CNN is about news the same way MTV is about music
(which is very little, if at all)

Its not news, its a fucking drama.

Thankfully I disconnected my cable TV service since last election.

------
diN0bot
i watch a handful of tv shows a week through hulu. it's enormously better than
when i watched shows on tv. i watch exactly what i want to see when i want to
see it. i feel like my brain is destroyed less by not succumbing to additional
crap.

also, i read books on my computer. i'm far more likely to read at night (or
whenever i want to procrastinate) than watch shows (i don't play an
appreciable amount of computer games). the nice thing about reading, other
than the story arcs, creativity and writing being far superior to tv, is that
it's easier to stop when my eyes and brain get tired and fall asleep.

------
plinkplonk
15 years and counting (without a TV).

I get to see some TV when I visit my parents (two weeks a year) but that's it.
I've come to think of TV watching as something you do on Holiday when you are
just lazing around anyway. The only time I miss it is World Cup Football time.

All that said, I suspect the web can waste more time than the TV, if you are
not aware of it. Timing web usage (or alternatively doing without the web for
a month or so) can be very educational.

From the article,

"It was only by being away from TV for so long that I saw it like that."

Replace TV with internet ...

------
Groxx
I've been about a year (super-senior in college, now), and it would be longer
without roommates. Haven't missed it; Hulu has most of what I'm interested in,
and I don't have any interest _at all_ in following what's new on TV. Others,
I tend to borrow seasons from friends (which is MUCH easier at college, I'll
grant, but still).

It's amazing just how noisy TV is. DVDs / Hulu of the same show are _way_
nicer to watch, because 1/3 of your time (or more) isn't spent watching /
ignoring ads.

------
ZeroGravitas
I'd recommend _get_iplayer_ for UK-based geeks who want to have a bit more
control over when and how they watch stuff from the BBC iPlayer.

<http://linuxcentre.net/iplayer>

It's a command line PVR. There's a surprising amount of good stuff on at odd
times on BBC Four, like the two science programs he mentioned for example.

It's one more step away from having to watch TV on its schedule and its terms.

------
CoryMathews
I think he missed the point to having a tv in this.

Why would you settle to watch your episodes of 24 on a laptop when you have a
42" tv? Your settling for less.

I will agree though I do not like cable tv at all I have not watched it in a
couple of months (ever since I signed up for netflix). I however do love my
42" tv. I play games and watch movies ect.

Just because you have a tv does not mean you have to watch cable.

~~~
m_eiman
If he had a TV he'd have to pay the license fee.

------
dkersten
I haven't owned a TV in a few years. I used to watch TV stuff online, but
rarely do so now. Every now and again, I'd watch an entire show over a
weekend, but then nothing for the next month or two. The only TV-like activity
I do still engage in is gaming, though thats irregular too (ie obsessively for
a month and then not at all for three or so).

------
mambodog
My problem with TV is that I turn it on and it just seems to drain my
attention. What's more, it actually makes me less creative.

------
strooltz
i've probably _not_ had cable more then i have for most of my adult life. I've
gone years without watching TV in my house but in recent years with the advent
of hulu and other online streaming services, there really no need to pay
comcast (or whomever) $100+ a month for something you can get for the cost of
an internet connection.

------
jasonlbaptiste
why not hook the computer up to the tv though?

------
wheels
It's been 13 years for me. The funny thing is I couldn't even name a friend
from my 'hood that has a TV these days. Turntables? Sure. But a TV? That's so
20th century. Expect a comeback when they're retro and cool.

------
roedog
Talking about not having TV is a way to feel superior.

[http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/01/26/28-not-having-
a-t...](http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/01/26/28-not-having-a-tv/)

~~~
chigoodrich
Even in the comments! Love it. "Well, I haven't had a TV in..."

------
pavs
A little over a year for me. Don't miss it at all. A lot of free time in my
hands - spending the time reading copious amount of books.

------
Agile_Cyborg
Yes, this will ward off the demons. I am 35 and was raised in a home without a
single TV so I know this. I am relatively demon-free to this day.

