TV experiment - are you brave enough??

Looks like it's check-in time again so:

Still no TV and have never once wished I had it these last few weeks

lost 7 pounds due to not munching food in front of TV er.. plus I joined a gym so bit of both there

Playing through Deus Ex Invisible war computer game at the moment

I plan weekends now - rather than having the TV plan it for me (you can quote me on that :roll

There's about eleventy billion layers of wax on the car so far..

I kinda like the silence, before there was a constant noise from the TV so I guess the world is a more.....'calmer' place than before

I've thought of a good reason why someone would find it difficult, not to have a TV:

It's like your 'cosy friend' in that the TV programs satisfy our needs in a perfect kinda way, borne through decades of viewers responses and channel viewing figures i.e:

1. Just the right balance of news to keep us feeling informed but not too alarmed
2. Just the right balance of sexual explicity not to offend but keep us interested
3. Just the right balance of violence to keep us nervy but not freaked-out
4. Just the right balance of politics to keep us keen to vote but not go out and protest against something

etc. etc.

So maybe having to 'do your own research' and form your own opinions would seem like 'work' to some people - just a thought

ok that's officially spooky Justyc! - I submitted the above report and THEN saw your post - and the link.

which is a good thread BTW

hi all, its site is awsome.

as this being my first post here, I fell very strongly about tv isues, I would be willing to take tv out for one month. I have done it before. see I couldn't afford the 40 bucks for cable, I only had enought for interweb service.

I was 12 years old before I watched tv, anyone else never watch tv from birth? its mind control plain and simple. cnn is on at my home, is easy to understand the propaganda,maybe someone should pay me to watch tv that damn box is a time waster. i call it the boob tube,

too amny lives are wasted in frount of that box, i enjoy movies and tv programs,but i mad click that damn remote, comericals piss me off, how can they be so stupid, its personaly insulting to my person. what about the new defence department chanel, millions will be hooked on that station.some compitition for cnn. personaly I try to find informative suff like monster garage.

so what exality does this experment involve? and how much does it pay?

peace

Suppose that humans happen to be so constructed that they desire the opportunity for freely undertaken productive work. Suppose that they want to be free from the meddling of technocrats and commissars, bankers and tycoons, mad bombers who engage in psychological tests of will with peasants defending their homes, behavioral scientists who can’t tell a pigeon from a poet, or anyone else who tries to wish freedom and dignity out of existence or beat them into oblivion.
— Noam Chomsky

Hi NoTV4ME - thanks for checking in. what i find scary is people who's whole lives revolve around what time something is on tv - when they cook/eat (even down to timing something that will take so long to make so they can watch a program), when they bath/shower, planning their week ahead and making arrangements with friends around when there's nothing they want to watch etc

Fuggeisgod - welcome to ATS. hope you enjoy yourself here. please read the thread from the beginning to save me repeating myself as it still seems that a lot of people think i am ONLY asking to give up tv for a month. there are 2 other parts to the experiment and to me they are far more interesting but the few volunteers i have had seem to have opted for only the no tv option. i hope that you will participate after reading up on what the experiment is about

i found the original article where i first heard of this experiment (although it was years ago when i read it and what i have asked participants to do here is slightly different and on a longer timescale). for those interested here is the url - daghlian.net...

i also found this one which is equally interesting - world.std.com...

With stuff like internet to retreat to, I dont find it difficult to stay off television for longer periods of time. I have noticed however that I am somewhat addicted to SCREEN-WATCHING, be it internet or tv. How about experimenting staying away from the Internet for one month? A near impossibility for most people, I bet. AT LEAST the Internet is more INTERACTIVE than Tv.

In General I dont think its about watching TV or not watching TV but about WHAT you are watching on TV, WHAT you are feeding your mind with. Since most of it is low quality, unbeautiful, unintelligent, the effects are just that. Therefore, I´d recommend to make good CHOICES at what you give your eyes to look at. Thats why I rarely watch TV but quite a few DVDs...because good movies can be uplifiting and inspiring.

Well I'm back. Didn't do much recreational reading while on coarse. Too damn tired after all the reading through the day. So my options were watching the wall or TV, guess which option I took. Back on the wagon now though.

welcome back Intrepid. i guess the month is up now so if you could give us a summation of your thoughts and experiences during the experiment that would be good

Originally posted by justyc
welcome back Intrepid. i guess the month is up now so if you could give us a summation of your thoughts and experiences during the experiment that would be good

That's easy.

1- It's been a month already?
2- Didn't miss it other than as a mind occupier when too fatigued to do anything else.
3- Wife liked the TV off too.

Well after a month the honeymoon period is over and that initial happy-chappy feeling has waned and a new 'lifestyle' has begun. I have no plans whatsoever to watch TV again and frankly wouldn't really have the time!! as I am too busy with other things.

I am generally more organised now (oil change for the car this evening for example) and by 'hanging out' in discussion forums and 'researching' news instead of just accepting the 'media drip feed'

It's not been difficult and I think everyone should do it at least once in thier lifetime (and not just by going on vacation).

Sadly I can't see the rest of the world 'unplugging' anytime soon..

So it's goodnight from him, and goodnight from me

One time my parents got the cable turned off for a month and I didnt watch TV that whole month, nothing really happend I was just always bored

A while back I went about three months without a television. It was when I started at uni. I moved into a house with five other people. For the first three months we spent most of our time in the dark dingy living room and talking about random bs. The furniture was a state and extremely uncomfortable. We had a tiny CD player for music sometimes. A couple of my housemates had a TV in their room but still spent most of their time drinking and talking about bs in that communal space.

Then eventually someone went out of their way to get a television for us all to watch together and after that talking bs and laughing manically about random stuff became increasingly unpopular.

Fights started breaking out over what to watch. Eventually we all went our own ways and it seemed to split what was once an inseperable house.

Ever since then Television has never been a big draw for me. I watch the football, news and films from time to time. As I approach my mid twenties I have less and less time for the old goggle box.

I guess it did change my life now thinking about it. Just going to uni changed my life in many ways but those first three months, alone, in a new place where you have to make friends all over again seemed perfect. I don't think it would have worked with a TV in that room.

('stand by me' moment)

I've now lost touch with most of my housemates from that first year. Mark became a sound technician...I heard Charlie and Sean graduated with business degrees. Sarah moved to America where she studies special effects make up in LA. Of all the people I lived with in that house, the strongest bond I shared was with Jane. We still speak from time to time. She runs a Hotel/public house in the City that we studied in. We get together to reminisce and catch up once a year. We go out for food, drink and talk random bs. Although we age physically it seems that our mentality has never matured from those magical three months without a television.

With that evil machine present we might never have been able to create such a eternal friendship.

Even if my art degree isn't worth the paper it's written on and the debt i've created will burden me for years to come, I know that university was worth it for the experience and the lasting friendships I've made. They say that you never make friends like the ones you make at Uni.

Jesus, does anybody?

Well I had to put my tuppence worth in........

I've not had a TV for 3 years - my family's life has changed immeasurably. We talk, we read, we interact.

But the best example of the benefits of having no TV........

My son is 11, it recently was his birthday. Myself and my partner asked him what he wanted. He replied,

"I don't really know - I've got everything I want."

SO PROUD

[edit on 8-11-2006 by Delta Alter]

well it seemed from the responses that most people thought tv was a bad influence on their lives and they were so much more productive without one.

perhaps there are some newer members here who would be daring enough to try this experiment? if so, please note your interest here.

Lucky Me!!!!!!

I got lucky when I move in my new apartment. I could not get cable for three weeks, and no attneas to pick up any station. During this time I spent more time reading,exercising and spending qaulit time with my girlfriend. Not to mention that I read more than I had in a long time. When I finnaly got cable I did not watch it much, I spent most of my time on the internet, studying and reading tons of non-fiction.

I cancled my cable and got anntenas, so my TV is free. 40 bucks in my pocket now.

THe amazing thing is now I never watch TV at all or play video games.
I find it amazing when I go to work how many people are so envolved in TV. They talk about the shows and the charcters as if they are real. They know so much about these shows but nothing about current events or history.

Also I notice how TV shapes and molds everyones minds to think a certian way. Now that I dont watch it I look at everyone and how they kind of have the same opions and how everyone is a critic. I guess they dont call it the hive mind for nothing.


Another thing that is very interesting happened to me.
Im happy with my life. My Job/My Material things/My friends and Family. I dont need nothing but food and some entertainment sometimes.

I even got offered a job that paid 15K more than what I made but I turned it down because I liked my job and did not feel I needed more money. I had nothing to spend it on.

for this thread !!!

On the thingy that mentions sound/no image i can give u all the info u need !! I've been doing it for the last 6 years! My parents are addictited 2 their TV , so they look while i read, think,play online and surf the web! I can say i HATE tv
Why? Because its makes u dumb! Its a total waste of time. All of u tv looking guys lose the chance to really get informed on TRUE facts ! Not the crap tv sells u . And on the fact that ppl talk about their shows/soaps : around me everyone looks tv , and i can state for sure that they don't have a clue rather the things they see are Facts or Theories. Ppl believe almost everything the media feeds them.Today the media controls the mind of many ppl! Ask 20 ppl around u to name the closest planet to the sun and half wont know. Try it !!

If this experiment is still open, I'd like to try only listening to the TV. I have gone about 5 weeks without tv a couple semesters ago when my roommate didnt have a tv. I had no idea what was going on in the news during that period.

Just found this thread. And I just had to do this...

You have voted justyc for the Way Above Top Secret award. You have one more vote left for this month.

A former colleague of mine now wears a black dishdasha and the kind of headdress favoured by people whose idea of a fun weekend is to watch a few judicial amputations and executions in the square behind the souk. He believes that the Taleban were a Good Thing. He refers to television as 'Shaitan's box' (That's 'Satan's box' for all you born-again monoglots).

My ex-colleague and I don't agree about much any more, but we agree about television. I watched plenty of it as a kid, but since reaching man's estate I haven't been able to stomach it. It so obviously panders to the base, the venal and the stupid, I'm surprised so many apparently intelligent people actually watch. How can they bear to? If I'm compelled to watch for even half an hour, I feel all soiled and seedy.

[edit on 4-1-2007 by Astyanax]

My family and I have been without "public" TV now for a year. We still watch DVD's and play games but are exempt from all the media interference. My son, who is nine, used to run about wanting things he would see on TV. That is all gone. The holidays are so different as well. No longer are they commercialized by the media, my son had to really think about what he was asking for this Christmas instead of naming off products that had been pounded into his mind. We are able to live on a better budget, now when we shop we buy things we need and a few things we want. We are not programmed to buy everything. We have much more family time, we don't base our evening or lives around TV programing times. I would recommend this lifestyle to everyone. You never realize how much the media is involved with your way of thinking and living until you are without their influence.


**My son is homeschooled as well so the peer influence is also kept at bay.

Originally posted by FsuSteveO
If this experiment is still open, I'd like to try only listening to the TV. I have gone about 5 weeks without tv a couple semesters ago when my roommate didnt have a tv. I had no idea what was going on in the news during that period.

well, it's really an ongoing experiement so there's nothing to stop you doing this experiment at any time. simply choose your category and report here which experiment you will be undertaking and report the results here as you go.

it really is an eye-opener to those who have always lived with a tv and for those who think it doesn't have much influence on our lives.

thank astyanax