TV experiment - are you brave enough??

is that not the whole point of the experiement? draw your own conclusions from the interest in the amount of people who are viewing the thread and the lack of volunteers participating in the experiment

and people think there's something wrong with me because i don't have a tv. lmao

[edit on 5-2-2005 by justyc]

10 1/2 years . i read alot ,anything , and everything . only been on the net for the last 3 or 4 years steady (1 to 2 hrs every other day or so) .
although we do have satellite now i will still read something while ignoring the background noise of the idiot box.

You know - I figured if there were a place on the internet to find 3 people to give up TV, this would be it.....

Things are MUCH worse then I thought

EDIT: double post

[edit on 6-2-2005 by American Mad Man]

yes. we're now on sunday & the superbowl will soon be over. i'd just like to mention at this point that ever since i heard about this experiment many years ago, i have asked so many people to try it out and do you know what? - i never had ONE SINGLE PERSON who agreed to try it and then did it!

like you, i thought that this place would be perfect to find a handful of people willing to take a little time out of their lives in what some of us already know is a worthwhile experiement from many different angles.

all i can say at this point is that i'm sorely dissapointed to see so many people who proclaim to 'deny ignorance' and will still carry on doing so long after this thread is forgotten.

and now for a commercial break...

It has occurred to me while reading this thread that I am not seeing a rash of people saying no way either (as if they are addicted and just won't do it).

Is it possible that TV addiction is not a biggie with ATSers to begin with? In all honesty, it is on all day in my home occupying someone else, and I am on the other side of the house at my computer, which I'm not so sure is all that much better.

if it is no 'biggie' then you should have no problem with getting the other members of your household to participate in the experiement and switch it off for a month. After all, you would fit perfectly into the choice 1 catagory as the tv is on all the time in your household.

no biggie? we'll see....

It's no biggie for me. I don't watch it. Am I going to attempt to tell a grown man who does that he can't or he shouldn't? Nope! Would I put up with him telling me what to do? Nope! There's a mutual respect issue that would be violated if either of us started to limit the other, and in this case, that is exactly what it would boil down to. The guy works hard and if that is one of the ways he relaxes, who am I to disrupt his comfort level? Would I like to see him give it up? Sure I would, but he's my husband, not my kid.

no you shouldn't 'tell' him but there is no harm in 'asking' him to give up watching it for 1 month of his own free will to see if it could benefit him or to show what effect it does have on his life (and yours)

Pass!

Apparently there is no way to explain it to you.

There is no doubt in my mind that the benefits of no TV cannot be disputed, but hey, I know the guy and he would seriously think I was cracking if I asked him to do that. Anyway, my point in responding to this thread was to simply point out that possibly you are not getting enough volunteers here simply becuase the average ATSer doesn't have an issue caring about TV at all compared to the general population. Was just a thought.

The tv brings chaos and DRAMA right into our homes.
Without the TV....my son and I are nicer to one another and comunicate more clearly. The DRAMA of the outside world as seen by various so called NEWS programs seams to be pointed at us to keep us in a state of fear.

I truly WONDER at the vibrational frequencys effect from television on our bodies Maybe it keeps us much lower than than is needed to be more AWARE of our actual life? Instead of paying attention to the things that truly NEED our attention, we end up watching "SURVOVOR"........and let the things we SHOULD be focused on go down the tiolet.

I was raised by the TV set. Im not allowing the TV set to raise my son.......if ONLY I could 'let go' of this lifelong companion of mine, I know in my heart my life would vastly improve. My fondest memories of this life are camping and being FAR from the TV sets influance.

I remember clearly, as a child.....faking going to school, so that once my mother left for work I could sit at home and just watch TV all day. This was in the late 60's till the end of the 70's, I did this. Always telling my mother that the school was just messing up my ODD attendance record. "Sheesh mom, they say I miss 2 days EVERY WEEK! and you KNOW this is just a lie!"
(I cant BELIEVE I just admitted this to the world at large)

I have FREE cable tv in my apartment, and I honestly dont think I could DO this, and just NOT WATCH.....it has me in its gripping claws!

[edit on 6-2-2005 by theRiverGoddess]

i'll do the no tv for a month thing, if you still have no volunteers...


edit: it would have to start on monday though; sorry, but i can't miss the superbowl

[edit on 6-2-2005 by ironblade]

thank you for volunteering ironblade

the experiment is to pick on of the following, stick with it for a month and record here all your observations whenever possible -

1. no tv
2. no picture but sound
3. no sound but picture

if choosing either 2 or 3, it is advisable to keep a pen & paper handy to jot down things that occur to you.

there's still time for a few more of you daring enough to participate. after all, only 1 has to go without tv fully whilst the others can still spend the same amouny of time in front of it but under certain conditions. how hard can that be? think about that and then ask yourself if you can do it too.

Break the habit parentcenter.babycenter.com...
nvnv.essortment.com...
www.xtvworld.com...
www.tvturnoff.org...

Count me in - I already gave-away my TV one week ago and don't intend getting another one any time soon.

As I live in the UK where a Monthly 'licence fee' (tax) of £10 ($20) is payable for privelidge owning a TV, I no longer have to pay this - yay.

However - the legal authorities who enforce this tax regard anyone without a licence as a 'license-dodger' i.e. gulity - the idea of someone NOT owning one doesn't compute with them. So I have been told by phone a few days ago to expect a visit from an enforcement agency officer at 'ANYTIME' when they will request entry to my home to search for any TV signal receiving device - this includes VCR's, cable, satellite and PCTV cards - this is standard procedure. Plus they can turn up at any time in the future to search my house again and do this as often as they like.

Technically you do not have to let them in but if you don't they will never stop hounding you and can eventually obtain a court order to search the premises - if a TV is found - it's a court appearance and up to £1000 (£2000) fine.

I have seen a clip showing someone being assualted by one of these enforcement officers because the officer did not want to be filmed.

Our govn't receive £2.5 Billion from UK househlds per year via this tax
So the next time you are watching a BBC program - I helped pay for that as the licence fee is only payable by UK citizens..

An estimated 2% of population in the UK do not own a TV

I am assuming people from the US will not understand/believe this level of oppression.

It's not all bad though - if you are registered blind for example, you only have to pay half the fee... and when you reach 75, the govn't let you watch for free..and I think there's a reduced charge if you have a black & white TV set.

Have you ever cnsidered filming someone watching TV for say 15 minutes - it's quite disturbing to watch someone a whole 15 minutes - let alone the 4-5 hours most people dose-up with every day.

Funny that the best 2 weeks of the year are when you are on vacation when guess what? - you're NOT watching TV for a change...

welcome to the experiment NoTV4ME. can you tell us if you were a regular viewer before you gave away your tv (approx how many hours, regular programmes you watched etc) and also how your first week so far has been?

watching people who watch tv is indeed interesting - kind of reminds me of that pink floyd song... "hello. is there anybody in there? just nod if you can hear me"... lol

how much activity would a camera hidden inside a tv set register if it was watching the watchers? i wonder

My usual consumtion of TV was:

I would scan the net for the evenings programs - make a mental note of one and then usually forget to turn it on. I gues my viewing per week would be a couple of hours of programs that 'took my fancy' and about another few hours of mindless fogettable rubbish - why do we do that?

My first week has been good - I am spending more time pondering life's daily problems/issues so having more consideration time to come up with possible solutions. Also joined a gym and been every night. Sorted out some household chores - some finances - visited Fammily/friends and found I had more to say (if that makes sense'

Also saw the TV was on in the background round my parents house and found myself actually sneering at the news anchor who seemed like a pre-programmed incincere robot (I hit the killswitch).

I think I am going to like this experiment - Oh and I am sleeping more

One other thing is - I am not eating as much - used to constantly eat while watching - dunno why

I'm still on board if it is still worth doing without all 3 people.

Unfortunatly, I am contemplating throwing myself of of the Walt Whitman bridge right now beause the Eagles lost in the superbowl, so I don't know how many days I can be relied upon for. I have not wathed TV since the game ended, so if I should stick with it let me know.

Ok I have no TV.

I can do #1 ok but not #2 and #3 hehe.

But I play games regularly when I come home to cover for it.

To me I feel a lot of programs on TV turn your brain to mush. Instead I play computer games to turn it to mush lol.

- Nazgarn

well the superbowl is over now (not making any comments as i have no interest in it whatsoever) so i am hoping that the few who so far said they would volunteer are now starting their part of the experiment.

American Mad Man, i suggest that you turn the tv back on & do the picture / no sound option and give us your thoughts over the next month

now.... where did the others go to