Originally posted by justyc
the experiment is to choose one of the following and record in this thread your experiences...
1. do not turn on the tv for 1 month
2. turn the tv picture on but leave the sound off
3. (if tv is capable) turn the tv picture off but leave the sound on
please register your interest here in participating in this experiment.
(and)
...it is purely an experiment to see what happens when you do not watch/listen/see tv programmes for 1 month.
Does 7 years count?
I hate TV. I've hated it since about 1995. I went from 1995 to 2002 without even owning TV. I read a lot, browsed the internet, played computer
games, listened to NPR, PRI, and MPR on the radio. Went to Irish pubs, and played a lot of chess with total strangers. I got more writing done than I
ever did in the rest of my life combined, and felt able to think more clearly.
Starting in 2002, I bought a 42" projection because the price was unreal (something like $100), and I wanted to play X-Box games and watch DVDs. This
was all the TV got used for.
By about 2003, I'd exhausted most of my entertainments around the house, and sometimes friends and I would play something we called "sync". Where
you get blitzed, then turn the TV on mute, and then put on some music, and watch for sweet-spots where the music would sync up perfectly to the TV.
This is the most fun I've ever had watching TV, which isn't saying much, to be honest. Up till this point, I'd never watched a complete TV show
since about 1994, and certainly not with both sound and video going at once.
Late 2003, I meet the woman who is currently my fiance, and she watches a lot of TV. Talk about culture clash. Now I actually watch about 2 shows a
week. "24" on Fox (which I watch religiously) and... occasionally "Ghost Hunters" if my sweetie happens to be watching TV and notices it's on.
That's about it. She watches a lot less TV now, perhaps one show a night. Most of the time, when she does, I'll work on my novel, or balance our
budget, or play a computer game.
I don't think I'll ever be the kind of person who can zone out on TV for hours on end, night after night, ever again. I actually rather resent my
TV, except that it makes it a lot easier to watch DVDs and play X-Box.
[edit on 2/4/2005 by thelibra]